College students often forget two things: 1) the legal drinking age in the United States is 21, and 2) smoking and/or possession of marijuana is illegal everywhere – except Amsterdam and a handful of other hippie-friendly locales.

Sadly, even Ivy Leaguers are susceptible to these “random” bouts of amnesia, and two Brown students learned this lesson the hard way when the police paid them an impromptu visit to their dorm room.

Around 12:52 a.m. last Saturday, Providence Police were called to Buxton House to investigate the cause of a fire alarm. While they were searching the premises for the source, they observed smoke emanating from a student’s dorm.

The Brown Daily Herald reports:

Upon entering the open room officers observed an ashtray in plain view with what appeared to be the remnants of marijuana cigarettes in it. They also smelled a faint odor of marijuana.

Additionally, there were two glass bottles of alcohol on a table. As the building was cleared for entry by the Providence Fire Department, two students returned to the room. They admitted that they had been in the room smoking and didn't realize they had set off the smoke detector. They were reminded that marijuana is illegal, that the drinking age is 21, and that smoking and glass bottles are not allowed in dorms. They were informed that a report would be filed for disciplinary action and the officers confiscated both the suspected marijuana and liquor. The matter has been turned over to the Office of Student Life.

Ouch – no mercy from the police, but that’s to be expected.

Question: Are there no windows in the dorm rooms at Brown? Were they too stoned/drunk to remember to how a smoke detector functions and to open a window to ventilate the room?

Too bad they didn’t read these tips beforehand.