East Fifth Street
Sept. 29, 9:15 a.m.
A University of Arizona student got busted over a Snapchat video that not only broadcasting his drug use, but made it look more criminal. He thought that the video would make him seem cool, according to a UA Police Department report.
A UA officer spoke with a campus community director with jurisdiction over the Coronado Residence Hall, 822 E. Fifth St., where a student had emailed him a screenshot from a fellow resident's Snapchat story. It showed an image of long lines of "a white powdery substance"—presumably cocaine—that someone had laid out out on laptop.
Another screenshot sent from the same video with the camera zoomed out a little showed the backdrop of a window looking out on a specific parking area just outside the residence hall, clearly identifying the specific room. The Snapchat story was captioned "Lines with a view" and punctuated with an emoji. (At least one might give the subject points for his literary reference.)
The officer went to the room in the video to talk with its resident, whose last name was also overtly associated with the Snapchat account. The suspect invited them in and they immediately saw the laptop pictured in the video in front of the window from the video.
Initially, the subject tried to dodge the officer's questions, but when he started specifically describing a Snapchat video with lines of cocaine in it, the subject "had a reaction that appeared to be a realization of what (he) was talking about." He then admitted that the video was his.
But, he said, the white lines shown weren't actually comprised of cocaine, but of Adderall (the contents of a pill capsule), which he'd been taking because he was stressed about two papers he had due the next day. He said he'd displayed the Adderall in lines in his video because "cocaine seemed to be a popular drug of choice around college and...he wanted to be accepted into the crowd."
He said he "realized that it was not the best choice to post a video" implying he was using cocaine. He also admitted that he didn't have a prescription for the Adderall capsule that the officer found when he searched his room (along with a straw apparently used to snort the drug). He said he'd gotten the pill "from a friend" who wasn't a student and insisted the friend had given him the pill as a "gift."
The officer confiscated the Adderall, and straw, and informed the subject that this incident would be reported to the dean of students.
