Activists use April to Educate about Pot

Group says they want Campuses to Talk Openly about a "Safer Choice"

Apr 5, 2010
Jon Pike

cannabis - wikiemdia common

April is Alcohol Awareness Month on many college campuses. A group of activists, says that's fine, as long as people are willing to talk about another alternative: pot.

While California voters will decide in November 2010 whether that state will be the first in the nation to give local units of government the option to legalize marijuana, pro-pot campus activists are using a month reserved for education about alcohol, to promote what they say, are the benefits of marijuana.

Alcohol Awareness Month and a Possible Alternative

April is Alcohol Awareness Month on many college campuses. It is hard to deny the scourge that alcohol has become to today’s college students. The theories vary, some blame the raising of the legal age limit for consumption to 21, for instance. Pro-cannabis activists say young people, and every other adult, should have access to what they claim is a safer intoxicating substance.

While marijuana has been used on college campuses since at least, the 1960s, some media outlets are taking the concerns of the group, Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER). The premier news outlet for higher education issues, The Chronicle of Higher Education, interviewed one of the founders of SAFER, Mason Tvert, Tvert says that colleges inadvertently fuel binge drinking by students by having zero-tolerance policies for marijuana. Tvert says that college policies are also inconsistent. He says that while he was at the University of Richmond as a student, "There was no investigation into who gave me the alcohol," when he was treated at a hospital for alcohol poisoning as an 18-year old. On the other hand, he says he was investigated thoroughly by campus officials when he was caught smoking pot. College students can also lose access to student aid through felony drug convictions.

Driving Students to Drink

SAFER is trying to piggy-back on to an initiative by over 130 university presidents to lower the legal drinking age to 18. Proponents of the so-called, “Amethyst Initiative” claim that higher drinking age limits have led to more binge drinking.

SAFER is trying to go one better on these presidents by promoting what they call, “The Emerald Initiative.” According to the SAFER website this initiative is aimed at supporting, “ ‘an informed and dispassionate public debate" on whether allowing college students to use marijuana more freely could result in fewer students engaging in dangerous drinking. The website claims that colleges are fueling a “culture of alcohol” by refusing to talk openly about marijuana as an alternative.

SAFER provides its activists with a wide range of printable handouts. Just as campuses are trying to make people aware of alcohol in April, SAFER is trying to make people aware of marijuana