SSDP Presents Campus Drug Policy Gradebook

Yale

SSDP (Students for Sensible Drug Policy) recently announced their Campus Drug Policy Gradebook. The drug and alcohol policies of the top 300 schools in the country according to Forbes were analyzed and graded. The handbook was created to provide grades for the individual schools as well as to make improvements in their policies.

Schools received a high grade if they have medical amnesty policies and penalties that are clearly defined for specific violations. They scored low if they have strict punishments and zero tolerance policies.

According to the SSDP, the handbook “can be used not only to help students learn about the alcohol and drug policies at their schools, but to let students compare their school’s drug policies to ideal and inferior policies. In addition, the recommendations for improvement can help students identify and work to change problematic policies on campus.”

But is this what most students will be using the handbook for? My guess is that many will use the Campus Drug Policy Gradebook as a deciding factor on what college they will ultimately choose to attend. Whatever its purpose, the handbook reveals some interesting information about some of the country’s most prestigious schools.

The top four schools received mixed grades. Yale, who ranked #4 on Forbes‘ Top Colleges List, received a “C” grade for their vague punishments and sanctions regarding their drug and alcohol policies. Stanford, the top school in the country also received a “C” grade as well. Ponoma College in California earned an “A,” while Princeton received a “C.”