NYU: We Flush Our Students' Drugs For Them!

Specifically, NYU will throw your drugs down a magic rainbow toilet similar to the one they use for tuition money (via kmeneses's flickr)

Uhm, guys? You are NOT going to believe this. We may have mentioned this to you before, but this is for serious folks. Hold on to your britches: college kids do drugs. And it gets worse. Colleges really don't like to tell the authorities about it.

The Post today has an EXCLUSIVE report (a month after a similar story in the News) that tells us the shocking truth. While Columbia might have all the glam and glitz of being in the Ivy League and getting national headlines for a drug bust named after a 80s punk band, NYU is where the real fun is. Not only is NYU more expensive than its peer uptown, it also has more students and more of them do drugs!

Last year, the Post reports, there were 610 drug-related incidents at NYU compared to 121 at Columbia. And in the former's case the cops were only called in twice and at the latter they were never called—because that would be bad PR. According to folks who spoke to the paper, and from what we've seen with our own eyes, both schools (really, most schools') campus security have been given strict orders to not call the cops unless there is a life and death situation.

The Post story did have one great tidbit we didn't know though. When campus security, at NYU at least, finds "a very small amount" of drugs they simply flush them "down the toilet," according to NYU spokesperson John Beckman. As if NYU students didn't already have a reputation for being pampered now they have this to deal with this? Kids can't even flush their own damn drugs?

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Garth Johnston in News on January 3, 2011 1:32 PM

Comments [rss]

JSU22

Wow, and I go to a State school where they call the cops if there's even a whiff of marijuana, literally. This only applies to the campus, of course, drug use is alive, well, and easy to get away with living in the city proper, where Crack use is rampant amongst the city people, leaving the student population free to practice lesser drugs. Still, this kind of privilege-based white washing pisses the hell out of me, mostly because its entirely based on concerns over reputation and has to do with the ridiculous amount of money these schools are endowed with, which in NYU's case has so much more to do with the millions of dollars in real-estate they own and the irresistible allure they present to thousands of rich Midwestern, West Coast, and Californian( yes, they deserve their own category) suburbanites, leading to the gross inflation of real estate prices, gentrification, and other culture-abolishing effects, than it does any kind of Academic worth or value. And, of course, all of this shows that NYU's concerns are anywhere other than the well-being of their students, since life-threatening situations are really easy to come by in a city where Coke is still a pretty popular drug.

Xwendekar

Maybe these kid should come to Greece. Police aren't allowed to enter school campuses under any circumstance. When it's hot out you can actually smell the weed growing in the fields.

mgalewski

ummm you really think that the NYPD code name "operation ivy league" has anything to do with the band? i see it more as operation: ivy league in that the NYPD calls their investigations "operations" and ivy league because columbia is an ivy league school... if the reference to the band was supposed to be facetious or tongue in cheek, i think you failed to get that across.

Xwendekar

Um, everyone got it but you, so who's the real failure here?

If you're new to Gothamist, you should know that an obscure tongue-in-cheek pop culture reference is pretty much guaranteed in every story.

Guest

ooh, two ladies going at each other. that's hot...

...FOR GOTHAMIST! HAH!!!

ok, time to run.

Knightmare6

Love how the school flushes the drugs, when we're not supposed to even flush over-the-counter and prescribed drugs! ;)

Alex

This country's drug laws are ridiculous so it's a good thing they don't call the police.

Edward G Robincat

1) Students getting arrested, having more trouble finding jobs --> bad for future alumni giving. So sure, the university has a direct interest in protecting the kids.

2) "more of them do drugs" [at NYU] --> maybe the Columbia students are just better at not getting caught?

nicemarmot

We weren't supposed to call the police at my college either. I believe that policy was set after the cops arrested a kid joyriding on a campus golf cart for grand theft auto, and refused to drop the charges even though the school refused to cooperate. After that it was basically official school policy that pigs were the enemy.

Yeah I went to college in the suburbs. The cops had nothing to do but harass college students. It was just too bad for them that we were mostly quite well behaved, as college students go. That must have been a seriously boring job.

langleycollyer

I'd like to help. College kids: please send all your unused, high-quality drugs to me, care of Gothamist, and I promise I'll flush them down a toilet for you.

zombie_cakes

Op Ivy was only a band from 1987 to 1989. Just sayin...

Garth Johnston

Whoops. Fixed now. Thanks guys.

nice job

you were obviously never punk

Guest

thought punk died in 84 or so.

i was only 6 in 84, so i was never punk either -- however, i was a really proud wannabe in the mid 90's for a few years, which is probably the most embarrassing thing i can ever mention.

hah, thank god i'm anon.