Despite a federal crackdown and an increase in the tenacity of anti-drug laws, some students believe there has not been a noticeable decrease in the amount of drugs dealt on the University of Wisconsin campus.

“I don’t think much has changed in the last few years,” said Aaron Monroe of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy.

Monroe’s group advocates against a stipulation that was added to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid that restricts students with prior drug convictions from receiving financial assistance for college.

Students for a Sensible Drug Policy were among other groups who marched to the State Capitol Oct. 4 as part of Harvest Fest, an annual gathering of marijuana-rights activists.

“Madison police are fairly relaxed on the matter,” Monroe said. At similar events across the country, area police are known to arrest more than 100 people for smoking marijuana. Monroe said Madison’s police force took an atypically relaxed attitude to the event, at which activists smoked marijuana in plain public view on Library Mall, and on the parade down State Street to the Capitol.

“As far as I know there were no arrests,” Monroe said.

However, Oct. 5, UW students Aaron Sayad and Eric Sheinkop were among five men arrested in Chicago after police officers discovered 170 lbs. of marijuana plants in their apartment. The students will face their first court hearing Nov. 5 for possessing the confiscated cannabis, which had an estimated street value of $462,000.

In addition, Oct. 1, seven people were arrested in Milwaukee in the largest cocaine bust ever in Wisconsin. The Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation uncovered 52 kilograms of cocaine, bringing to a close a long-running investigation. The estimated worth of the seized drugs was $10 million.

UW junior Britta Spunkard said many students smoke marijuana on a regular basis and even sell the drug without serious repercussions.

“As far as the war on drugs goes, it really depends what kind of people we’re talking about,” Spunkard said, indicating prosecutors and investigators rarely target the typical college student.

Spunkard said some students who have been arrested for drug possession have hard times after the current law removed their eligibility for student loans.

“What we see a problem with is students who go to school on loans and maybe party a lot their freshman year and then get a misdemeanor possession of marijuana and get their loans taken away,” Spunkard said.

Spunkard said some UW students are definitely consuming harder drugs, but the problem of addiction was a matter of perspective, because many students who smoke marijuana everyday have perfect grades.

In February of 2000, the largest known seizure of drugs in Dane County took place when police executed a search warrant at a storage room near the UW campus. Investigators found 10 pounds of marijuana and five pounds of Psilocybin mushrooms, worth approximately $70,000, which they suspected had been being dealt among students.