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Marijuana Proponents Urge Colleges To Mellow Out
Posted by CN Staff on May 16, 2009 at 10:41:03 PT
By Rick Callahan, Associated Press Writer
Source: Associated Press
USA -- Marijuana advocates who say pot is safer than alcohol want colleges to wade into a hazy debate over whether schools' tough pot penalties are actually worsening their drinking woes.They argue that stiff punishments for being caught in a campus dorm with pot steer students to booze and add to binge drinking, drunken brawls and other booze-soaked troubles.
"You know, when you get high on marijuana you don't act violent - you just kind of sit there," said Mason Tvert, leader of a Denver-based group stoking the pot-vs.-booze debate.His group, Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, has helped students at 13 colleges pass measures calling on their schools to set pot penalties no worse than those faced by underage students caught drinking or other alcohol violations. So far, no schools have changed their pot penalties, he said.SAFER calls its nonbinding referendum push the "Emerald Initiative," a play on the Amethyst Initiative more than 130 college presidents signed last year. The presidents want lawmakers to rethink the national drinking age of 21, arguing that current laws drive college drinking into the shadows and encourage binges.The leader of the Amethyst Initiative, John McCardell Jr., president emeritus of Vermont's Middlebury College, says there's a big difference between the two debates."The fact is marijuana is prohibited across the board. It's not a matter of age discrimination, as where alcohol is concerned," he said.Tvert argues the pot-vs.-booze question is still a valid debate."If they're willing to talk about letting 18-year-olds use a seriously harmful drug, why shouldn't we talk about whether they should be allowed to use a drug that's far less harmful?" he asked.Federal statistics show that college students who drink are prone to binge drinking, drunken brawls, accidents, sexual assaults and alcohol poisoning.Marijuana's full effect on college students isn't as clear.According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, about 1,700 college students ages 18 to 24 die each year from alcohol-related injuries, and 599,000 more are injured. The institute also estimates there are more than 696,000 alcohol-related assaults each year - two-thirds of them by students under 21.On marijuana, the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy says in its "Myths & Facts" report that even a moderate dose can impair driving performance, and that 15 percent of trauma patients injured while driving a car or motorcycle had been smoking pot.Few schools suspend students caught on campus with pot, said ThomasWorkman, chair-elect of a group sponsored by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators that tracks campuses' drug and alcohol policies and trends. He's also an assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Houston-Downtown.More common are policies that remove pot-smoking students from residence halls and allow them to continue their classes, often with some form of counseling to address their drug use."We just don't have a lot of highly successful students who are potheads," Workman said.Tvert said his group's marijuana-penalty measure has passed at every college where the question has come to a vote, including Ohio State University, the University of Central Florida, the University of Texas at Austin and Purdue University.Purdue has a zero-tolerance policy for students caught in their campus rooms with marijuana or other illegal drugs. But Sara Wislocki, a junior majoring in interior design, said the rules don't make sense because students who routinely drink, not their pot-smoking classmates, are the campus' big problem-causers."You hear about it all the time that so-and-so had to go to the drunk tank because he caused a ruckus or whatever. But the students who aren't causing the problems are being targeted more," said Wislocki, president of Purdue's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws., said the group wants Purdue to change its marijuana penalties, particularly those that fine students who lose housing due to misconduct $300 and require them to pay rent on their room for the rest of the semester.School records show 691 students were involved in alcohol-related cases in residence halls during the 2007-08 school year, and 18 of those students lost their rooms. The same school year, 51 of 62 students caught in campus housing with marijuana or other illegal drugs were evicted from their units.Purdue spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said students are not required to live in campus housing, and those who do agree to abide by residence hall rules and face penalties for breaking them.Debates aside, studies showing that marijuana affects memory and learning in college-age youth more powerfully than in adults may be one good reason schools are tough on pot users, said Scott Swartzwelder, a professor of psychiatry at the Duke University Medical Center."Think about what college students are there to do - they're there to learn," he said.Source: Associated Press (Wire)Author: Rick Callahan, Associated Press WriterPublished:  May 16, 2009Copyright: 2009 The Associated PressURL: http://drugsense.org/url/TLE6NGYACannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by BGreen on May 17, 2009 at 09:14:12 PT
Another brilliant expert (in denial)
Debates aside, studies showing that marijuana affects memory and learning in college-age youth more powerfully than in adults may be one good reason schools are tough on pot users, said Scott Swartzwelder, a professor of psychiatry at the Duke University Medical Center."Think about what college students are there to do - they're there to learn," he said.I have a simple question, Mr. Swartzwelder.How does the consumption of copious amounts of ethyl alcohol affect the ability to retain information already residing in the short term and long term memory, and how does the metabolism of this poison, a mechanism commonly referred to as a hangover, affect the students ability to learn after drinking?My years spent at a University exposed me to a level of drinking that even surpassed that of my High School. Even as a musician performing in bars I've never seen the level of alcohol consumption as I did in college.So tell me, Mr. Swartzwelder, just how much worse is cannabis compared to ethyl alcohol?The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #4 posted by BGreen on May 17, 2009 at 08:55:52 PT
Impeccable Credentials
An assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Houston-Downtown.Obviously it would be foolish of us to argue with a scholar with such distinguished credentials. Someone who has made it to such an influential position of assistant professor of a school so prestigious that I've never before even heard of it, and his obvious knowledge of the cannabis consumption of every single University student in the entire country obviously surpasses the intellectual "fools" who disagree such as neurologist Ethan Russo, Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman, astrophysicist Carl Sagan and innumerable other brilliant humans (although I'll admit that none of them ever reached the ranks of assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Houston-Downtown.)My complete apologies to all of the nonjudgmental students and faculty who aren't self-righteous a$$holes spouting obvious lies in order to justify our prison state.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #3 posted by runruff on May 17, 2009 at 02:33:05 PT
rollin', rollin',rollin keep those doobies rollin'
More here:http://www.veryimportantpotheads.com/main1.html
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Comment #2 posted by runruff on May 17, 2009 at 02:19:13 PT
successful potheads? Oh please!
Famous Potheads:
Louis Armstrong 
All 4 Beatles
Snoop Dogg
Bob Dylan 
Whitney Houston
Jimi Hendrix 
Mick Jagger 
Bob Marley
George Michael
Willie Nelson 
Noel Gallagher of Oasis
Pink
All of Pink Floyd
Melissa Etheridge
Art Garfunkel
Anthony Keidas of Red Hot Chili Peppers
Andrea Corr 
Bing Crosby
Carlos Santana
Eminem
Jim Morrison 
John Denver
Johnny Cash 
Kurt Cobain
All of Led Zeppelin
Miles Davis
Neil Diamond
Neil YoungPablo Picasso 
Salvador DaliQueen Victoria
Bill Clinton
Al Gore
Prince Harry
Abbie Hoffman
George W Bush
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson 
James Madison 
James Monroe
Andrew Jackson
Jesse Ventura 
John F Kennedy 
John Kerry
Newt GingrichStephen King
Victor Hugo
William Shakespeare
Oscar Wilde
Hunter S Thompson
Jack Kerouac 
Lewis Carroll
Rudyard KiplingJohnny Depp
Steve Martin
Tommy Chong 
Cheech Marin
Kate Moss
Brad Pitt
Jennifer Aniston
Harrison Ford
Kirsten Dunst 
Drew Barrymore
Luke Wilson
Jack Black
Martha Stewart
Anjelica Huston
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Carrie Fisher
Conan O'Brian
Chris Farley
Jack Nicholson
Julia Roberts
John Wayne 
Macaulay Culkin 
Montel WilliamsMike Tyson
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Comment #1 posted by Vincent on May 16, 2009 at 22:31:42 PT:
brainwashed
The jackass of the week: Thomas Workman, chairman of some security group says, "We just don't have a lot of highly successful students that are potheads". He's so brainwashed, he's a caricature!
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