Oberlin College did not have a drug policy through much of the early hippie era. In fact, it did not have one until February 1967. It was then labeled a necessity by both the administration and the Student Senate, and so a drug conference was planned.

There was a mass mailing to announce the conference. In it, was a fact sheet on various drugs, a glossary, an article entitled “The Dangerous Drug Problem” and a letter stating the conference’s goals.

“One of the purposes of the Conference on Drugs will be to help the senate to write a policy on drug use,” it read. The conference also wanted to determine the reasons why students felt the need to “turn on” in the first place. An additional (and unconventional) point of the conference was this: “We see an aggressively critical attitude toward this culture in the same user who becomes disinterested in any efforts to bring about social change...Do the paintings, ‘game theories’ and religious experiences really contain anything new and what effect could they have?”

On the list of events and activities were weekly mailings (which “students were encouraged to keep for future reference”), six lectures by psychologists of varying specialties (including the editor of the Psychedelic Review) and a performance by a group called USCO in Finney:

“A group of artists...will present their media-mix show ‘We Are All One’ (slides, movie, sound).

This show deals with space-time disorientation, many simultaneous stimuli and other perceptual distortions. It suggests the type of experience which will be discussed in some parts of the conference, and raises questions regarding the possibilities of non-chemical consciousness expansion.”

Incidentally there was a definite focus on hallucinogens in the conference, particularly LSD. This, according to the letter to the students, was because of the “widespread usage, the misinformed sensationalism that now makes difficult the attainment of a realistic perspective.”

One paper presented was entitled “Abuse of Stimulant and Sedative Drugs on the Campus” (the campus being non-specific). It defined the role of a college campus in drug abuse prevention to be a scientific study of the problem, sending “suspected victims” to medical personnel and counseling. It also suggested “cooperation with law enforcement agencies in uncovering the illegal source from which the drugs are obtained.”

The ultimate proposal accepted by the administration for a policy wasn’t too dissimilar from the current drug policy. Any misuse that is “brought to the attention of College officials” will “normally” get probation with the understanding that a second offense will get suspension. Parents were always to be notified. Specific penalties for anyone providing drugs (“e.g. at a party”) was one-year suspension, whether sale was involved or not.

It also stipulated that “deans are obliged to report any information about possession or distribution of drugs,” presumably to civic authorities.

In May 1974, civic authorities went over the deans’ heads.

“As near as I can tell, the picture looked something like this,” wrote Dean of Students George Langler in a mass letter that October. “Public school officials and other citizens in the community became concerned with the fact that public school students seemed to be getting drugs from the College campus.”

A very slight investigation yielded enough evidence to involve the Metropolitan Enforcement Group (MEG). “No one in the College, including myself, was aware that last year’s investigation was being carried out,” wrote Dean Langler.

Not only were some students making drugs available to local kids, he continued, but “because some of these students were involved in keeping drugs and/or had considerable sums of money as a result of selling, they became targets for theft...there had been several armed robberies in dormitories carried out by persons not connected with the college. As a result, the students affected acquired their own firearms.”

The investigation had a vaguely eerie side as well. On May 10 1974 the police arranged for the phone lines to be tied up in North, Dascomb, Barrows and Zechiel. They then raided the dorms. The Oberlin Municipal Court ledger dated May 10 shows the arrest and arraignment of 10 students, all with multiple drug-related counts against them, all with intent to sell. The charges were dropped in the municipal court but six students were subsequently tried in a secret grand jury court.