The law denying financial aid to college students who have been convicted of any drug law violation (news article, March 13) should be repealed. By forcing them to drop out of school, it has served largely to deny many needy students the opportunity to improve their lives.

If Congress wants to encourage students who need help to enter treatment, it should finance such programs for them. Preposterously, Congress has done nothing to discourage student abuse of alcohol, which is implicated in virtually all college rapes, deadly hazing and disabling and fatal accidents.

If Congress wants to get serious about campus substance abuse, it should raise the tax on beer. The resulting increase in price will discourage under-age drinking as cigarette tax increases have discouraged youth smoking.

JOSEPH A. CALIFANO JR.
New York, March 13, 2004
The writer, president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, was secretary of health, education and welfare from 1977 to 1979.