WSU is a federally funded university and therefore, is required to follow federal law regarding drugs and alcohol, especially in residence halls where students are typically younger than legal age.

“The alcohol policy with alcoholic content is you must be the age of 21 to partake in any alcoholic content within the vicinity of the residence hall,” said Richard Wallace, Community Duncan Dunn residential education director (RED). “You must make sure anybody in your residence hall is at least 21 to partake in it and this has to be inside your dorm room in the residence hall and not outside.”

For tobacco use on campus, since WSU is not yet tobacco-free, students can smoke on campus but not in the residence halls or in campus buildings.

“Students have to be at least 15 feet away from entrances to residence halls. Cigarettes are not allowed within residence halls, especially because they are a fire hazard,” Wallace said.

Marijuana is not allowed on campus. Since WSU is federally funded, even though marijuana has been legalized in Washington state, it does not apply to the university since that was just a statewide legalization.

“Marijuana right now, the feds are not enforcing marijuana laws in the state of Washington since the state has made it legal, and the state made it easy because marijuana has the same state legal age as alcohol, 21,” Police Operations Cmdr. Chris Tennant said.

Tennant said a large problem with substances in Pullman is that the vast majority of WSU students are under 21 and are on their own for the first time as young adults, which means they are using these substances while underage.

He said in regards to what constitutes a warning or what constitutes a felony, the situation differs from case to case.

“We (the Pullman Police Department) don’t really give a lot of warnings for alcohol and drugs,” Tennant said. “So don’t expect that if you get caught in public you will get a warning. You may sometimes, officers still have discretion, but most often it will be a misdemeanor.”

There are consequences for those who end up breaking the law and are caught in the act or with paraphernalia.

“On the face of it, that means $1,000 and a year in jail,” Tennant said. “If you only have one violation right now the prosecutor has a diversion program and if you pay a smaller amount, and go through an alcohol class and don’t get in trouble for a while then they will dismiss the original charge.”

He said selling alcohol to minors is considered a misdemeanor, but there is no chance for a diversion and you will go to court. Selling drugs to someone who is legally underage basically makes you a drug dealer and is considered a felony, not a misdemeanor.

Students that are caught using substances and breaking the rules on campus will be caught and held accountable for their actions.

“If someone is found in violation of the Washington Administrative Code (WAC), it will be documented by a hall staff member about the alleged violation,” Wallace said.

The residential adviser or RED would confirm if there was a smell of marijuana or alcohol and then go through the proper channels and call the WSU Police.

According to the WSU Police Daily Crime / Fire Log, between Jan. 11 and 21 there were eight alcohol-related incidents that all ended in arrests and 12 warnings for marijuana use, while only two ended in arrests.

“Officers have the discretion as to what they want to do, so they can knock on a door and warn the person or they can go to the extent of getting a warrant and then searching the room,” WSU Police Assistant Chief Steve Hansen said.

Document of the alleged violation would then be sent to the Office of Student Conduct that deals with violations and go through a hearing with a student conduct officer.

Wallace said the student would then go through an educational process, talking about why they behaved in this way and what led to this happening. Then the student would find out if they were actually responsible for the alleged violation and if it was considered a violation then a sanction would be placed on them.

He said sanctions can vary from counseling in psychological services, taking a course on the negative effects of drugs and alcohol in your body and writing a reflection paper about what happened and what you can do to prevent this happening in the future.