The toll is more than double the number of midshipmen who were “separated,” or expelled, in the academy’s initial action, announced in January 2011. But the total falls well shy of the scores of expulsions some former midshipmen predicted at the peak of a highly publicized investigation last winter.
“I would say that every single person here is proud of our record and proud of the Midshipmen that will soon lead our Navy and Marine Corps,” Marks said in a written statement.
Some erstwhile midshipmen now must repay the government the cost of their education. The Navy picks up tuition and living expenses for midshipmen, but expelled students can be ordered to pay it back. One former midshipman, speaking in an interview last year, said he owed the Navy $120,000.
That student said he had been admitted on transfer to an Ivy League-caliber national university. He spoke on the condition of anonymity, as did other former midshipmen, partly out of concern that the offer might be withdrawn.
Synthetic marijuana, an herbal potpourri sprayed with chemicals, caught on over the past decade as a then-legal high that mimicked the effects of marijuana. It was marketed as incense but sold at $10 or $20 a gram to a knowing clientele who would smoke it to produce a potent but unpredictable high. It is often called “spice” after a popular brand name.
The Drug Enforcement Administration enacted an emergency ban in March that outlawed five chemicals commonly found in synthetic marijuana.
Synthetic marijuana took hold in the military because it could not be detected in random drug tests, a routine that sets the service academies apart from other colleges. Synthetic marijuana never seemed to displace authentic marijuana on most American campuses.
Leaders of the Naval Academy portrayed the campus synthetic-marijuana problem as relatively small and scattered. Officials now say their investigation found no evidence of drug dealing or distribution on campus, no nest of synthetic-marijuana users on any athletic team or club.
The 16 synthetic-marijuana-related expulsions are consistent with the prevalence of synthetic marijuana at the nation’s other elite service academies. At the Air Force Academy, for example, officials said 26 cadets have been disciplined for synthetic marijuana.
Several current and former midshipmen, interviewed last year, gave a different account. They alleged that a senior introduced the drug to campus in spring 2010 and began selling it to underclassmen. By fall, the students said, synthetic marijuana had spread through the brigade, to the football and wrestling teams, and to an off-campus party house.
“That was the one way that we knew that we could get high,” said one former midshipman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The investigation accelerated in December 2010, when a midshipman had a seizure while smoking synthetic marijuana with a group.
The current and former students said at the time — and some still contend — that the academy underreported the extent of synthetic-marijuana-related expulsions. Academy leaders noted that several cases were held up in administrative limbo for weeks between a given student’s exit and formal separation.
Loading...
Comments