The first time a UNC student living in a dorm is caught with a small amount of marijuana for personal use, that student can be evicted. Every time housing employees suspect marijuana use, they are mandated by UNC policy to call the police.
This is draconian and unfair. No student should face such severe consequences from student housing over a first-time victimless offense.
Marijuana is — for now — an illegal drug, and housing obviously cannot openly allow its use. However, a one-strike eviction policy that could ruin a student’s life for a single mistake is disproportionate to marijuana’s harm.
The first time a student is caught with a small amount of marijuana should never result in eviction, and the police should not be involved. The penalties for marijuana possession in the dorms should be based more closely on the current model for underage drinking penalties.
Under North Carolina state law, the first-time possession of less than half an ounce of marijuana for personal use is decriminalized and considered a Class 3 misdemeanor. It carries roughly the same penalty as underage drinking.
On campus, underage drinking sanctions are no more severe than a meeting with a community director, possible probation and sometimes being required to attend a course about alcohol use.
Compare this disparity in punishment with the harm each drug causes: Alcohol abuse is widely acknowledged to lead to dramatically more harm than marijuana.
Further, UNC should end the mandate that housing employees notify police for any small-time incident involving marijuana. Involving the police for such a trivial matter wastes law enforcement resources, creates the possibility for legal trouble for the student, strains relations between students and campus law enforcement and escalates the situation needlessly.
Worst of all, punitive policies for marijuana use create an environment of distrust among housing employees, such as resident advisers, and on-campus students who use marijuana. This is especially wrong due to the widespread use on campus.
