The University of Massachusetts at Amherst had a 61-officer police department that included a unit that handled drug cases. In the fall of 2012 campus drug cops learned from one of their student snitches that a sophomore named Logan was selling the ecstasy drug Molly as well as LSD to other students. Not long after that an undercover UMass officer bought drugs from the former high school hockey star and scholarship student.
In most colleges and universities a student caught selling drugs on or near campus is suspended from school and charged with a crime. These schools also inform the student's parents why their son or daughter was kicked out of the institution. Once alerted parents of children with drug problems had the option of trying to get them help.
In Logan's case the campus police gave him a choice: he could be thrown out of school, pay back the $40,000 in scholarship money, face the wrath of his parents and risk going to prison for up to five years or avoid all of that by becoming a drug informant for the campus police. Logan decided to snitch on his fellow students.
In December 2012 the UMass drug officer in charge of Logan's case gave him back the $700 officers had seized from him at the time of his arrest. His parents, proud of the fact their son was earning good grades in college, had no idea he had a drug problem, had been caught dealing and was now an informant for the UMass police. In the department he was identified as "CI-8."
Over the next several months Logan made drug buys for the campus police, became seriously hooked on heroin and snitched on his fellow students. He continued, through all of this, to maintain grades good enough to hold on to his scholarship. (Because he was an out-of-state student Logan's tuition was almost double that of his in-state counterparts.)
On a Sunday afternoon in October 2013, Logan's parents showed up on campus to pay him a surprise visit. At his living quarters they knocked on his door. When he didn't respond his parents assumed he was working at his campus job. But Logan wasn't at his job. The parents became worried when he didn't answer their text messages. It was then they asked a maintenance employee to let them into his dwelling.
In the bathroom the parents found their son lying dead on the floor next to a needle and a spoon. He had been dead for some time because his body had cooled. The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be "acute heroin poisoning."
Although Logan had been arrested in 2011 for possession of cocaine, his parents thought he had beaten his drug problem. They were shocked that as a UMass student he had been hooked on heroin.
Since the vast majority of UMass police cases involved underage and excessive drinking, Logan's heroin overdose came as a shock to everyone in the college community. There hadn't been a heroin related death at the school since 2008.
Until the Boston Globe published an investigative article about Logan's case no one but the campus police knew about Logan's role as a campus drug snitch. His parents and others were outraged by the revelation.
In September 2014, in response to the Boston Globe story, the UMass Police Department discontinued flipping drug arrestees into snitches.
Most colleges and universities have no policy regarding the use of students as campus drug informants. Most of the schools that do prohibit this practice had student snitches like Logan who overdosed and died.
In most colleges and universities a student caught selling drugs on or near campus is suspended from school and charged with a crime. These schools also inform the student's parents why their son or daughter was kicked out of the institution. Once alerted parents of children with drug problems had the option of trying to get them help.
In Logan's case the campus police gave him a choice: he could be thrown out of school, pay back the $40,000 in scholarship money, face the wrath of his parents and risk going to prison for up to five years or avoid all of that by becoming a drug informant for the campus police. Logan decided to snitch on his fellow students.
In December 2012 the UMass drug officer in charge of Logan's case gave him back the $700 officers had seized from him at the time of his arrest. His parents, proud of the fact their son was earning good grades in college, had no idea he had a drug problem, had been caught dealing and was now an informant for the UMass police. In the department he was identified as "CI-8."
Over the next several months Logan made drug buys for the campus police, became seriously hooked on heroin and snitched on his fellow students. He continued, through all of this, to maintain grades good enough to hold on to his scholarship. (Because he was an out-of-state student Logan's tuition was almost double that of his in-state counterparts.)
On a Sunday afternoon in October 2013, Logan's parents showed up on campus to pay him a surprise visit. At his living quarters they knocked on his door. When he didn't respond his parents assumed he was working at his campus job. But Logan wasn't at his job. The parents became worried when he didn't answer their text messages. It was then they asked a maintenance employee to let them into his dwelling.
In the bathroom the parents found their son lying dead on the floor next to a needle and a spoon. He had been dead for some time because his body had cooled. The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be "acute heroin poisoning."
Although Logan had been arrested in 2011 for possession of cocaine, his parents thought he had beaten his drug problem. They were shocked that as a UMass student he had been hooked on heroin.
Since the vast majority of UMass police cases involved underage and excessive drinking, Logan's heroin overdose came as a shock to everyone in the college community. There hadn't been a heroin related death at the school since 2008.
Until the Boston Globe published an investigative article about Logan's case no one but the campus police knew about Logan's role as a campus drug snitch. His parents and others were outraged by the revelation.
In September 2014, in response to the Boston Globe story, the UMass Police Department discontinued flipping drug arrestees into snitches.
Most colleges and universities have no policy regarding the use of students as campus drug informants. Most of the schools that do prohibit this practice had student snitches like Logan who overdosed and died.
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