The recent arrests of seven current or former University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill students on cocaine charges have created quite a stir in the college community, where most students drink alcohol or smoke marijuana. In addition, two of the arrestees were charged with felony drug trafficking.

"I haven't noticed a huge problem with it," said Scott Gallisdorfer, the university's undergraduate student attorney general, of cocaine. Gallisdorfer evaluates students charged with crimes to decide which will face the student honor court. "We don't get a ton of cocaine cases. The vast majority are marijuana."

Eric Ferreri and Jesse James Deconto of the News Observer write that over the past four years, the number of students facing honor court charges for alcohol violations has outpaced all drug charges, according to the most recent honor court data available.

In addition, a 2008 survey of UNC-Chapel Hill students revealed that 69 percent of respondents said they'd consumed alcohol in the last 30 days, about 20 percent had used marijuana in that period, and just 2.5 percent had used cocaine.

However, the cocaine busts last month at a local apartment have been a hot topic among students and parents. Several students arrested were in fraternities or sororities, including two women who lived in the Chi Omega house, which the student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel pointed out in its reporting.

"It's not confined to the Greek community," said Winston Crisp, assistant vice chancellor for student affairs. "I don't think the Greek community gets excused, but more generally, drugs and alcohol are problems that go throughout the student body."

Crisp issued a stern warning to Greek organizations recently, saying the university would no longer tolerate drug and alcohol abuse and the destructive behavior it spawns.

UNC-CH officials have not created new drug policies or regulations, but they say the recent busts have provided an opportunity for introspection.

"We continue to look into what the culture is on our campus," said Bob Winston, chairman of UNC-CH's Board of Trustees. "We don't think we have a pervasive drug issue."

On Sept. 15, Chapel Hill police raided a Church Street apartment and confiscated 75.6 grams of cocaine broken into one-gram packets, a clear indication of intent to sell, police said.

In the raid, Jonathan Ray Plymale, 22, and Eliza McQuail Vaughan, 21, were charged with trafficking, cocaine possession, and intent to distribute the drug. Police subsequently found an additional 121 grams of cocaine when they searched Plymale's home at 107 Fraternity Court. The street value of all the cocaine is about $7,500, police said.
Vaughan is a UNC-CH student; Plymale was enrolled until spring 2009.

"It's not normal for us to catch students with trafficking amounts," said Sgt. Jabe Hunter, head of Chapel Hill Police Department's narcotics division. "That's definitely unusual."

"It's such an undercover thing," said Jasmin Jones, UNC-CH's student body president, of cocaine. "It's condemned so much and there are such repercussions, people know to hide it."

The university's honor court takes it seriously. A student's first sanction for marijuana possession is a semester of probation; for cocaine possession, a semester suspension. If you're caught dealing cocaine, you get expelled.