BERKELEY, Calif., March 18 (UPI) -- A housing cooperative at a California university is warning of the dangers of drugs -- not to the student's health but to the co-op's financial bottom line.
A drug overdose that left a student resident of one of the Berkeley Student Cooperative's 20 properties brain damaged has brought unwanted attention, university scrutiny and potential financial liability to the private, nonprofit co-op, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday.
A letter from the co-op to 1,275 residents was seen as an attempt to combat rampant drug use in the co-op properties by appealing to students' monetary instincts rather than to their health concerns, the newspaper said.
There is a financial incentive to stay clean -- co-ops charge $6,600 a year, while dorm living costs $14,000 to $17,000.
"Many of our members would not be able to stay in school if they didn't have access to our housing," Jan Stokely, the co-op's executive director, said.
Madelyn Bennett -- whose 21-year-old son, John Gibson, collapsed and suffered heart attack-induced brain damage after consuming alcohol, cocaine and pot -- said the letter made her angry.
"I would like to remind all co-op members that as a community, you should be responsible for what happens within that community," Bennett told the Daily Cal newspaper.
