Reed RD Class of 2023

OMPursuit
Wed, 24 Apr 2019 20:33:04 +0000

@washugrad I mean, drugs are a presence at Reed. I didn’t see anything while I was there (not even pot!), but I have heard stories from current students. I feel like a lot of the heavier drug use happens off-campus. Note that a significant number (like 10%?) of students live off campus, often together.
I did see some (legal) drinking and some cigarette use.

I know for a fact that marijuana is banned on campus, although there is a dispensary a few blocks away. I bet you that most (but not all) of the smoking happens in said off-campus housing, since there are zero repercussions for those of age.

There are also two substance-free dorms on campus. They are the nicest dorms, and you can get into them by request as early as freshman year. During the overnight I stayed in the third dorm in that neighborhood (Sequoia) and it was beautiful, clean, very spacious. Definitely a place I’d want to live, substance free or not.

Honestly, a lot of the drug culture I’ve seen at Reed is very positive. It’s less that people take more drugs (although for all I know maybe they do), and more that they are willing to talk about it. There are publicly available testing kits, so students who do indulge can figure out what they’re actually taking. There’s also a medical amnesty policy that protects students from disciplinary action in a medical emergency-- they won’t be expelled or arrested for calling 911, even if they were using illegal substances. All of this makes for an atmosphere open to talking about substance use in a way I’m not used to seeing, living next to a large public university. It seems like policies are more focused on protecting students than punishing users.

I want to add that the Portland police do not seem well liked by the Reed student body, and the school uses their own Campus Safety Officers instead. I felt really good about the CSOs I met! I encountered them three times on campus and they were always friendly and helpful (they even gave me a little tour of campus when I was lost).