UMass Amherst says it will review its policy for students working as confidential informants for campus police. That’s after the Boston Globe reported a student informant overdosed on heroin last year.

The student was caught selling LSD and – in his room – police found a hypodermic needle.

To avoid disciplinary action or his parents finding out, the Globe reports the student agreed to lead UMass police to other dealers. Ten months later, his parents found him dead of an overdose.

“I hate to say anybody made a mistake, but I think was wrong not to engage the family,” says state Rep. Smitty Pignatelli, a member of the legislature’s higher ed committee.

Pignatelli says UMass should’ve included the family in the student’s decision on whether to become an informant.

He says he respects the UMass police, but as for the school’s claim that it did not know the student was using heroin: “There’s got to be some signs with a trained officer that, you know, ‘Hey, this kid still has a problem.’ Or ‘he’s not keeping himself clean.'”

“Or maybe there [should be] required drug testing,” Pignatelli says. “‘You’re in this informant program – mandatory random drug testing once a week.'”

A statement from UMass says the student twice declined offers of help. It says the school will study whether to require drug case informants to receive a mandatory referral to an addiction specialist.

The Globe story was reported as part of a UMass journalism class by Eric Bosco and Kayla Marchetti, with guidance from their teacher, Steve Fox.