The anti-drug attitudes on campus may reducethe ranks of users. Some suggest that Harvard'satmosphere pushes those students who used in highschool away from drugs.
"Most people find it's much more straight herethan it was in their home town," says Fred. "Intheir town they were in the crowd that did it alot... most people come here and straighten up."
Although Adams House and Dudley Co-op aretraditionally targeted as the centers of drug useat Harvard, some students question the accuracy ofthese stereotypes. "I live in Adams House, thehouse that is supposed to be...the center ofcounter-culture, and almost on one does drug,"says the sophomore.
And Harvard police say they are encounteringfewer and fewer drugs every year. "We don't to myknowledge have much of a problem," says HarvardUniversity Police Chief Paul E. Johnson. "We'vehad isolated incidents with a single student beingpicked up for marijuana, but nothing more thanthat."
Johnson says his department made only fourdrug-related arrests in all of 1991--onedistribution of marijuana in Holyoke Arcade, onecocaine possession in Winthrop House, onemarijuana possession on Trowbridge Street and onepossession of hypodermic needles inside theScience Center. Johnson says he had no record ofany students being among those arrested.
Although students do not like to talk about it,many users deal to finance their drug habit,causing students other problems.
"I'm still thousands of dollars in debt overdrugs," says the sophomore, who says he used todeal hundreds of dollars of drugs each week. "Ithought selling drugs was so lucrative that maybeI was more flamboyant about my use."
And while students say they buy and sell drugsin small, confidential meetings, some wonder howextensive the campus drug net work is.
"I would only approach people that I knew andwho knew me." says the sophomore. The studentadded, however, that sometimes strangers wouldapproach him about conducting a transaction.
"There is a considerablework-of-mouth-network," he said.
And as long as that drug network remainshealthy, very few students will venture into thehub to acquire drugs.
"Most of the public places students feel theycan go to get drugs, they're just going to getripped off," says the sophomore. "Boston is justnot a good place to get drugs."