Military Academies: Pot at Annapolis

Marijuana, creeping across college campuses a lot faster than ivy, has sprouted at the U.S. Naval Academy. As at all schools, it is strictly forbidden at Annapolis. But last week Rear Admiral Draper L. Kauffman, the academy’s superintendent, dismissed 13 midshipmen who had admitted to smoking pot in a dormitory room of Bancroft Hall. It was the second drug scandal to hit Annapolis: four middies were dismissed last June for using marijuana.

The latest pot problem surfaced when a dozen of the smokers’ fellow midshipmen became aware of the offense, decided to report to Annapolis authorities. They did so despite the fact that the school’s honor code, unlike those at the Air Force Academy and West Point, does not require students to report rule breaking by others. Nonetheless, most of the middies take pot seriously. “Drugs.” explains Midshipman Maurice McNeil, “affect a man’s judgment—and judgment is the big thing with a man in service.”