What Happens the First Time You're Caught Smoking Marijuana? Harvard's Policy Doesn't Say.

We already knew that the College’s drugs and alcohol policy tiptoes around the question of whether we can play beer pong. But a gradebook released last week by the nonprofit organization Students for Sensible Drug Policy points out that the policy is vague on other questions too.

SSDP, which "neither condones nor condemns drug use," according to its website, gave Harvard’s alcohol and drug policy a 'B' grade—an above-average mark among the 300 colleges evaluated as part of the project. (We, accustomed to Harvard's generous grade-inflation, aren't used to thinking of a 'B' as "above-average," but we'll take their word for it.)

SSDP's website describes Harvard's policy as "vague," saying it is "unclear which sanctions apply to which violations." It notes, however, that a "full medical amnesty policy is in place"—albeit one that some students told The Crimson has discouraged them from seeking medical help out of concern about potential repercussions.

Drew Stromberg, an outreach director for SSDP, said in a phone interview Wednesday that Harvard's policy is "overall very good," in part because the College's amnesty policy covers both alcohol and drugs and offers protection for both the victim and the caller. The "only thing" that prevented the policy from receiving an 'A,' he said, was its vagueness about sanctions. Specifically, Stromberg said, the policy doesn't make a distinction between sanctions for all marijuana policy violations versus a typical sanction for the first violation.

We pulled up the policy to see if he was right. The College Handbook for Students does not mention sanctions for marijuana use specifically, instead grouping together infractions including "the use of illicit drugs, underage possession or consumption of alcohol, serving alcohol to underage individuals, or overconsumption of alcohol." The policy does differentiate between administrators’ initial response to drug or alcohol violations ("a warning and/or referral" to the Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Services) and their more strict responses to a "pattern" of rule-breaking behavior. But as Stromberg notes, it's not precise about the response to a first-time violation for marijuana or any other drug.

Back in 2005, Administrative Board Secretary John "Jay" L. Ellison told The Crimson that the Ad Board will not issue punishment if a student is caught simply smoking marijuana. In recent cases in which students were punished, he said at the time, the offense was broader than just drug use.

We reached out to College spokesperson Colin Manning to get more information about the response to a first-time marijuana violation under the most recent iteration of Harvard's drugs and alcohol policy. But the statement he provided, while noting that the policy is "designed to protect the health and safety of all undergraduates," didn't answer our question.