When caught by the campus police selling LSD and Molly, a University of Massachusetts Amherst student by the name of “Logan” was given an offer he couldn’t refuse. In exchange for becoming a campus police informant and helping UMass catch other drug dealers, Logan’s offense could be kept a secret, even from his parents.
The deal would later cost him his life.
In October 2013, Logan was found dead in his dorm room, the result of a heroin overdose. Although he had spent the past year catching other campus drug dealers, Logan had continued to maintain an active role in the drug world. While putting other dealers behind bars, his addiction to heroin, which had gone unrecognized by his family and the police he worked for, grew to deadly heights.
UMass police claim they were unaware of his heroin dependency when they first hired him as an informant in 2012. Although they confiscated a hypodermic needle from his room, a device commonly used to shoot up heroin, police maintain they never suspected him to be a user. Officers offered him an opportunity to enter drug treatment facilities, but Logan turned them down, afraid that his parents would find out. He spent the next year as a police tool, buying drugs so the police could locate and arrest the dealers. All the while, Logan’s addiction went unnoticed.
The causes behind his 2013 death were largely unknown until Sunday, when a Boston Globe investigation revealed the events preceding the tragedy. Now, university officials are investigating the ethics of using students as police informants.
Although more often associated with urban organized crime convictions than lush college campuses, police informants are used regularly on college campuses across the United States. The deal is ostensibly simple: work for the police to catch criminals, and all the charges are dropped. More appealing still, school administrations are not informed of who in their student body is a police informant. The would-be criminals face no discrimination, no stigmatization and no punishment for their crimes. All they have to do is buy drugs and watch their dealers subsequently be arrested.
It may be difficult for a former drug dealer to rat out other drug dealers, often their friends, but the consequences of turning down the offer are much greater. Had Logan rejected the deal, he would have been suspended from UMass, his parents would have been notified and he would possibly have had to attend a drug education program, according to the UMass substance abuse policy. Furthermore, if brought to court and convicted, Logan could have faced up to 15 years of imprisonment, according to Massachusetts state law. Logan saw the police informant opportunity as an offer that was just too good to turn down.
It is the job of campus police to protect the students of that campus, and by turning former drug dealers into police informants, they are sending vulnerable users back into the dangerous world of drugs, instead of keeping them out and helping them stay clean.
Most students enter college as legal adults aged 18 or older, and Logan was 20 when he died. Therefore, when arrested, college students are expected to face the adult repercussions of their crimes, which include the possibility of becoming a police informant. Once a person turns 18, it is technically no longer the responsibility of the parents to control their child.
But if parents are legally excluded from the police work, why is lack of parental notification upon arrest used as a bribe for college students to become campus informants? Text messages and police records show that Logan’s greatest concern was whether or not his parents would find out about his history as both a drug dealer and user, but Logan was an adult. If campus police are going to justify using students as informants because of their legal adult status, underage consequences such as telling Mom and Dad should not be dangled over students’ heads.
Sure, there are merits to hiring student police informants. Through Logan, UMass police were able to catch a number of other campus drug traffickers, an act that ostensibly creates a better campus. But let’s be honest, drugs are everywhere, and just because someone is caught does not mean the drug issue is extinguished. There will always be drug dealers as long as the demand for drugs exists.
Furthermore, in using students involved in the drug world as informants, the needs of that individual are neglected. The hypodermic injection needle police found in Logan’s room should have been a clear indicator of heroin abuse. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced in March that widespread heroin usage had put Massachusetts in a state of emergency. Campus police should have been vigilant to any small indication of a student abusing the deadly drug.
Creating a safer campus starts with helping students who have presented a need for behavioral interference. Rather than give Logan the care he needed, UMass police sacrificed him for the “greater good,” an act that eventually cost him his life. If students caught trafficking drugs continue to be used as police informants, it is only a matter of time until the next overdose.
