Group aids students denied loans due to drugs

A coalition that wants change in the government's policy on drugs is raising money to give scholarships to students who have lost their federal financial aid for college because of drug convictions.

The effort is supported by US Representative Barney Frank, a Newton Democrat, who spoke earlier this month at a fund-raising event in Boston. The event raised about $1,800 for the John W. Perry Fund, which has awarded 14 scholarships over the past two years.

Frank has filed legislation to repeal a little-known federal provision that denies federal financial aid to some students who have drug convictions on their records. He and others argue the penalty is unfair because it places additional punishment on students who have already gone through the legal system. They also say it could prevent students from going to college.

Framingham State College has not had any students who have been affected by the rule. But Susan Lanzillo, the financial aid director, said that, unlike some private schools, the college would be hard-pressed to make up for cuts to federal financial aid by offering scholarships of its own.

''We don't have an endowment. We don't have the funds to make it up for them," said Lanzillo, who supports the elimination of the provision. ''It would be a shame."

But a spokesman for US Representative Mark Souder, the Indiana Republican who introduced the law, said students who rely on public money to go to school should be held to certain standards.

''Students who receive taxpayer dollars to go to college have a responsibility to obey the law," said Martin Green, ''even if it's a law with which they don't personally agree."

Green said the rule is meant to deter drug use. He added that Souder supports applying it only to students who are convicted after they are already in school or during the application process.