On Dec. 7, five students were arrested for allegedly selling drugs at New York's prestigious Columbia University. Dubbed "Operation Ivy League," Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridgette Brennan described it as the culmination of a five-month police sting where a baby-faced looking undercover cop was planted to purchase drugs from the students.

This bust reminded me of a similar sting in 2004 involving kids in Berkshire Country in Massachusetts. At that time another baby-face detective, employed by the Drug Task Force, was assigned the duty of going undercover to buy drugs from kids who hung out in a parking lot. Merchants had complained to police about the kids. For months the undercover cop hung out with the kids, even allegedly drinking with them, while purchasing drugs. The narc even talked about how he'd just lost his girlfriend to get the kids to feel sorry for him. This resulted in the arrest of 19 kids. One of them, 18-year-old Mitchell Lawrence, received two years for the sale of one joint. Lawrence was set to graduate from high school that spring. Instead, he watched his fellow classmates graduate from a prison cell.

So let me get this straight: the baby-face detective went to Columbia University and into the student dorms and made 31 buys over a five-month period that got a small amount of assorted drugs, including pot, coke, LSD and Ecstasy. Two of the students claim that they sold the drugs to pay for their tuition. Another student, Christopher Coles, told the New York Daily News that the cops are exaggerating. And why wouldn't they? They always do.

I got arrested for a drug sale back in 1985. One Westchester newspaper headline screamed, "Biggest Bust in Mt. Vernon History." This was used by the prosecutor to blow up my case and convince the judge I was a kingpin. But I wasn't. I was a small fry who made a mistake, and because of the draconian nature of the drug laws, I was sentenced to 15 years to life for a first-time non-violent sale of four ounces of cocaine. My part of the take was $500 for delivering the envelope of coke to undercover cops in a sting operation.  I lost everything my life and everything I had in life.

While the Columbia bust is generating a wave of press and Brennan is undoubtedly loving her 15 minutes of fame on national TV, the reality is that these busts are all hype and PR, and will do nothing to stop drug use on our campuses or in the city at large.

So I ask Brennan to remember any youthful discretion she might have made when she was young. The five students arrested have their entire lives in front of them. Don't let one youthful mistake ruin their lives forever. After all, we're talking about Columbia students, not Colombian kingpins.

Anthony Papa is the author of 15 to Life and the Manager of Media Relations for the Drug Policy Alliance. Follow him at Twitter.

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