<p>If the goal is to simply weed out all crime, why not send cops to fraternity row on Saturday night? They could arrest a lot more people for alcohol-related offenses without two months of preparation. I’d love to see statistics about the number of deaths, hospitalizations, and fights on campus caused by alcohol versus those caused by marijuana.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>According to [Crimson</a> White newspaper,](<a href=“Announcements for 7/22/2010 – The Crimson White”>Announcements for 7/22/2010 – The Crimson White) 61 of the 74 arrested were UA students (not 26 as you mention).</p>
<p>According to government figures from 2011, 20% of college students between the ages of 18-21 are current marijuana users.</p>
<p>So. Stupid. </p>
<p>I cannot believe people spent hard earned tax dollars on this. </p>
<p>All across the country on campuses, people are getting raped, beaten, stalked, etc and they’re focusing on WEED?!</p>
<p>“it doesn’t cost anything for Walmart to press criminal charges, so I’m not sure how their money would then be put to better use.”</p>
<p>It’s not true that it costs nothing to press charges. The main way it costs a business money is employee time. Employees have to hold the shoplifter until the police arrive, employees have to use company time to give statements to police, and take time again to testify at the arraignment/hearing, etc. All that is time that someone else has to be paid to guard the store, stock shelves, etc. Across thousands of stores and tens of thousands of shoplifting incidents, this adds up.</p>
<p>“One student, Jake Wilt, was waiting for a friend in the lobby of Ridgecrest South at 5:30 a.m. and said he saw sheriff’s deputies escorting several students out of the dorm in handcuffs”</p>
<p>Is Ridgecrest South an Honors Dorm?</p>
<p>“So you want selective enforcement of laws and tacit approval of illegal behavior?”</p>
<p>This goes on in all law enforcement systems at all levels, all the time. There isn’t any public or private police force in the country that tickets every jaywalker without any discretionary adjustment. Maybe Singapore.</p>
<p>RCS has 2 towers, this year the N tower is Honors and the S tower is not…next year both towers will be Honors.</p>
<p>Quote from jrcsmom: "Most of these students are not going to suffer serious legal consequences, most college towns I’m aware of have pre-trial diversion programs set up because the legal system doesn’t have the resources to deal with these minor problems, so students pay a fee, agree to stay out of trouble, and so long as they don’t violate the terms of the program the offense never appears on their record. "</p>
<p>Wrong. I know of a freshman at UA who was picked up by the campus police for underage drinking. He spent the night in the Tuscaloosa County Jail with some bad guys, had to appear in court and was given community service hours and 18 hours of substance abuse classes. Because he was 18 and not 19 (age of majority in Alabama) his record was sealed. He also had to appear before UA’s Judicial Affairs. He is not alone in this. Unfortunately he knows several students who have had the same sentences when caught drinking underage. </p>
<p>The young men who were arrested will be prosecuted and those over 18 will have a criminal record. I suspect that a drug offense will carry a stiffer punishment than underage drinking. </p>
<p>I have never done drugs of any kind, I don’t approve of them, and I am not sure if weed should be made legal, I’m on the fence about that. However, I think that what occurred this week at UA was ridiculous. The police should have focused their efforts on the dealers not innocuous students who now may be expelled from school or worse. </p>
<p>As a parent I truly try my best not to judge others. When I hear about things like this I always think “there but for the grace of God go I.” We all think our kids are perfect but reality sometimes says otherwise.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Wow. UAPD sent an 18 year old student to the Tuscaloosa County jail for underage drinking? If it had been the Tuscaloosa PD I wouldn’t be shocked by that, but I am stunned that the University police would handle it that way. Is that standard procedure?</p>
<p>why not? why wouldn’t UAPD send and 18 year old to real jail? perhaps is the student was nice and respectful, not, but i am sure this is not always the case. something like that could have played a part.</p>
<p>just like with the marijuana arrests, if you want to play with fire, be prepared to get burned.</p>
<p>I remember being warned at Bama Bound about the no tolerance to drugs. The campus police stressed that AL is different than other states (like California) where tolerance is more widespread.</p>
<p>^^ I’m just going by what I know has happened on some other campuses, and what our local police department in my suburban town does.</p>
<p>On pre-trial diversion in Tuscaloosa:</p>
<p>[Pretrial</a> diversion program approved | TuscaloosaNews.com](<a href=“http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20110616/news/110619782]Pretrial”>http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/20110616/news/110619782)</p>
<p>[Overview</a> & Procedures » TUSCALOOSA COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S OFFICE](<a href=“http://www.tuscaloosada.com/f-y-i/clean-program/overview-procedures/]Overview”>http://www.tuscaloosada.com/f-y-i/clean-program/overview-procedures/)</p>
<p>“The most important legal benefit you will receive upon successful completion of CLEAN is the permanent dismissal of your criminal case.”</p>
<p>Jrcsmom mom, don’t believe everything you read. I can tell you that is not the truth and so can the young man’s attorney. And, before someone suggests that he must have been charged with more than what is stated above, he was only charged with under age drinking. </p>
<p>Yes, the UA police sends kids to the county jail.</p>
<p>The only portion of your post that I dispute at all is the portion about the criminal record.</p>
<p>I believe that if a student is arrested there is a minimum amount of time they will be held before they can be released. I recall during Bama Bound being told not to rush to campus because students couldn’t be released immediately. Also if someone who is arrested is intoxicated for both safety and liability reasons they are not going to release that person, student or not, until they are sober, which may take some time. If the police arrest someone and then release them while they are still legally intoxicated then that person is in an accident or causes an accident, the police are going to have some liability. Also a student under 19 shouldn’t be released unless to a legal parent or guardian and if it takes the parents/guardians significant time to get to town, then the students will remain in custody during that time.</p>
<p>Also the details of the CLEAN program that I linked say that community service is a vital component of their program and also say that substance abuse programs may be required -</p>
<p>Specifically:</p>
<p>Community service is an essential requirement of CLEAN. Your initial requirement of community service work is 50 hours. More community service work may be imposed as a sanction. All community service work must be completed before graduation.</p>
<p>You will be required to attend any and all programs referred by the treatment team. Failure to attend these programs will result in sanctions by the Court. Also, in the event the treatment team deems it necessary, you may be required to change programs or complete an inpatient treatment program or a half-way house treatment program or other residential facility.</p>
<p>The program is optional and to participate students have to ‘plead guilty’ although upon successful completion the criminal charges are dropped. If a student opts to plead not-guilty then they will be assigned a court date. For a student that had a lawyer, it is possible that they opted to plead not-guilty and attempted to establish a defense to the charges. </p>
<p>The program is also generally only used for a first time offender and someone who has any other, even minor offenses in their past may be deemed ineligible.</p>
<p>I live near a college town. On most court dates if there is any reason to go into the courthouse, you can generally find 20-50, mostly students, sitting in the halls of the courthouse waiting to talk to the staff in the pre-trial diversion office. Although not in Alabama, I know more than a couple people who’ve gone through the program from the time I was in college to the time my sibling was in college to the time that my son’s friends have gone off to college. At least here in Indiana it is a very legitimate program that is utilized on an extremely regular basis. I suppose Alabama might describe it in detail on their county DAs website and not use it, but not certain why that would be especially when the purpose is to relieve the overburdened court systems from holding trials for 100s and 100s of students that commit minor offenses every year in college towns.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I mean it’s just as important to catch people who drive five miles over the speed limit as it is to catch murderers right?</p>
<p>“In addition, we need to consider the hypocrisy of a nation that grabs a legal though often toxic pill for every single ailment, yet treats natural substances like cannabis as if they were created by Satan instead of God.”</p>
<p>Just because something is a “natural substance” doesn’t mean it’s healthful.</p>
<p>You must certainly be aware the marijuana contains carcinogens and other toxins.</p>