tfs

San Diego State just became home to one of the largest school-related drug busts in recent history. The final toll? Around 100 people were arrested, 75 of them students. The police confiscated 4 pounds of cocaine, 50 pounds of weed, 350 ecstasy pills, 4 guns and $60,000 in cash.

Considering this is front page news almost everywhere, this article going to be a simple news recap. Instead, we wanted to take a different angle, and talk to someone on the ground. It’s so easy to have an opinion made up by reading a single AP news article, but there are always other sides to a story.

Through a contact, we were able to interview an alumni from the most prominent fraternity involved in the drug sales - Theta Chi - and get a feel for what the local response is to this drug bust.

Let’s get on with it…

theFreshScent: This seems like an extremely serious issue and could possibly affect Theta Chi’s charter. Were these drug dealings completely common knowledge among house members, as the AP news article suggests?

Theta Chi Alumni: It would be safe to say that most brothers in a chapter know what the other brothers are up to, especially brothers who live at the fraternity house. If it is found to be true that drugs were sold on the premises, there is no doubt that their charter will be revoked. Theta Chi holds a strict no tolerance policy on drugs. Even alcohol is not allowed on chapter premises.

To see the rest of this interview, read on…

tFS: Did the people not involved in the drug operation ever speak up? Try to get things to stop?

TCA: My understanding is that the chapter was not involved in the dealing of drugs but merely a few careless members. The chapter was only 1 of the 9 places which Police searched with warrants. When an activity takes place in a fraternity house that is not liked by the other brothers, it is well known. Furthermore, legacies and older brothers have a much higher respect for the fraternity and normally put their foot down, especially if it jeopardizes the chapter or fraternity.

tFS: Do you know if any of the revenue from selling drugs went back into the fraternity or were just for personal gain?

TCA: No idea.

tFS: We all know people at SD State like to party, hell all of San Diego likes to party. Do you think this bust will really hold the market down for long?

TCA: Not at all, this appears to be a bust to address developing issues on the San Diego campus. The amount of arrests is simply astounding. The amount of cash and drugs ceased is nothing shocking if you take into account how many people and locations they had to raid to get it. It will probably send a scare through the buyer/dealer community, but unless they raid large distributers there will be no shortage of supply.

tFS: What’s the general campus reaction to this? I’m sure a lot of the students arrested were well know, is there any sort of community response happening right now?

TCA: I think it is too early to tell. I spoke with one of my friends which attends school there and his response was, “I don’t get the newspaper till Thursday…” so I think the news is still getting out.

tFS: Over 130 undercover buys, that means some serious evidence has been compiled against the sellers, any chance that some of them have been mistakenly linked (and arrested) to this operation?

TCA: It is unclear the involvement of the people arrested. I would not be surprised if some people were falsely arrested, or are being held liable for the actions of others.

tFS: Anything else you can share with me that I’m missing?

TCA: It is sad when things like this happen and the media jumps to throw in fraternity. Local news stations are known to send undercover girls with hidden cameras into fraternity parties to expose anything they can. The next thing you know a 20 year old drinking a beer is all they need to launch a story on a “underage drinking epidemic at frats”. This is greatly going to hurt the Greek system in San Diego. I am interested to see how many people were actually involved and what really happened where.

[Photo Denis Poroy/AP Photos]