'Operation Ivy League' ends with Columbia student arrest

When it comes to drugs, some college students are willing to take the risk.

But in the case of five Columbia University students, their decision eventually led to their arrests.

Last week, a final guilty plea came from a member of Columbia’s former drug ring, exposed in 2010. Adam Klein was the last of five male students to plead guilty to charges of dealing drugs to other students.

Based in fraternity houses and dorm rooms, the five student dealers collectively sold drugs including marijuana, LSD, ecstasy and cocaine.

After a five-month undercover drug investigation — dubbed “Operation Ivy League” ­— Klein was charged with selling LSD. He will be sentenced on Feb. 28. He is expected to receive five years of probation, according to ABC News.

Some Penn students don’t feel that a similar case would happen on campus.

“There is not even [a] kind of a drug ring at Penn. That would be ridiculous,” said a male student who sells marijuana. He wished to remain anonymous due to the legal implications of the act.

“[A drug ring] is impractical,” he added. “You’re going to get yourself caught.”

Penn’s Office of Student Conduct carries out investigations on alcohol and drug-related cases. If a student is found violating the Code of Student Conduct, he or she may be subject to disciplinary sanctions.

The Office of Student Conduct upholds the University’s Alcohol and Drug Policy, the Code of Student Conduct and other University codes and policies.

“[The Columbia drug ring dealers] broke the law,” Julie Lyzinski, director of the Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Program Initiatives, wrote in an email. “So being arrested and charged both legally and by the university are the natural consequences of their choices.”

Lyzinski, who leads an office dedicated to helping students who struggle with drug use in confidence, made it clear that “if students choose to break the law [by dealing illegal drugs] they need to be aware that there are putting themselves at risk for some pretty serious legal and judicial consequences,” she wrote in an email.

Susan Foster, vice president and director of Policy Research and Analysis at Columbia’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, holds college administrators largely responsible for the rampant drug use on campuses across the country.

Foster believes one of the reasons college administrators are hesitant to crack down on drug use is because it is often viewed as an “accepted culture of kids having fun or a rite of passage” by both administrators and parents.

She acknowledged that universities feel the need to appeal to prospective students. In attempting to do so, they do not want it to “appear that there is a [drug] problem on campus or that this is a dry campus.”

The anonymous dealer said he feels it is easy to get away with selling drugs at Penn.

“I don’t think [the administration is] strict at all” when it comes to drug use, he said. “I don’t feel like I’m going to get caught.”

While the drug business at Penn may not be as organized as that at Columbia, it can still be profitable. The dealer sees profits of roughly $200 every week to week and a half in marijuana sales. He only sells marijuana but said Penn students do use LSD, ecstasy and, less frequently, cocaine.

Foster believes that drug use on college campuses is a “public health and medical problem” and that students with drug-related diseases should get medical attention. However, she also believes that universities should not try to deal with drug cases internally.

Students should be held responsible for breaking the law, but “incarcerating or imprisoning a person for a disease makes no sense at all,” Foster said.

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