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Undergraduate charged with drug possession had ecstasy, Prosecutor’s Office says

The undergraduate student charged this month with possession of illegal drugs by the University’s Department of Public Safety was found to have ecstasy, the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office said Thursday.

University officials did not publicly disclose the type of drug after the Sept. 8 arrest, citing the need to conduct tests in order to properly identify it.

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However, at least one administrator from the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students and several residential college administrators had been made aware the morning immediately after the incident that the drug was ecstasy.

Joseph Gauvreau ’17 was arrested after a plastic bag allegedly containing drugs was found in his room in Holder Hall following a search.

On Monday, University Spokesperson Martin Mbugua said test results had not yet been received and consequently was unable to identify the drug. He estimated that the testing process could take weeks.

But Casey DeBlasio, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office, said Thursday that the complaint filed against Gauvreau indicated that the drug allegedly found in his room was ecstasy.

In response, Mbugua said he did not disclose the type of drug because it had not yet been tested and confirmed.

He added that Gauvreau was allegedly found with 840 milligrams of the drug at the time of his arrest. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, a typical tablet of ecstasy contains between 100 and 150 milligrams of the drug.

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Gauvreau did not respond to a request for comment.

In an email sent to residential college administrators the morning after Gauvreau’s arrest and obtained by The Daily Princetonian, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Michael Olin recapped the weekend’s incidents, which included a freshman being arrested for possession of ecstasy.

“One [alcohol] transport this weekend was a freshman,” the email read. “Another freshman was also arrested for possession of ecstasy.”

When asked for the source of information for the email, Olin said the email was internal and deferred comment to Mbugua.

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In the past year, Public Safety has made two other arrests for drug possession, both involving marijuana, without citing the need for confirmation tests.

Similarly, the local Princeton Police Department, which conducts arrests for possession of controlled dangerous substances on a regular basis, routinely identifies the drugs allegedly found in its biweekly press releases.

One week before the arrest, two concertgoers at New York's Electric Zoo music festival died after overdosing on ecstasy.