Pubdate: Mon, 13 Feb 2006
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2006 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Karen Brooks, The Dallas Morning News
Cited: Texas NORML http://www.texasnorml.com
Cited: Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation 
http://www.saferchoice.org/d_campus.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)

UT GROUP FIGHTS POT PENALTY

Marijuana Rules Should Be Same As for Alcohol, Which Is Deadlier, It Says

AUSTIN   Students at the University of Texas at Austin are asking 
administrators to ease campus penalties on smoking pot and put them 
on par with alcohol offenses, saying the school has a responsibility 
to discourage alcohol-related deaths by taking the stand that 
marijuana is the safer choice.

"If our elected officials in Texas want to impose harsh penalties for 
the use of marijuana, that is their decision, but the university does 
not have to pile on," said graduate student Judie Niskala, 25, who 
coordinated a referendum effort on campus and runs Texas NORML, which 
works to liberalize marijuana laws.

Students will vote on the measure, which is not binding, at the end 
of the month. It's part of a wider effort to target marijuana rules 
on campuses and in college towns.

It's already drawing opponents, who say that while it may be easy to 
argue the relative safety of marijuana compared to alcohol, the 
university shouldn't be sanctioning lawbreaking.

"We can argue all day and all night which is more dangerous, but the 
fact remains that alcohol is not illegal and marijuana is," said Ben 
Fizzell, director of the Young Conservatives of Texas chapter at UT. 
"If that [legal status] needs to be changed, that's different. ... 
[But] that would be UT saying, 'We do not view marijuana as illegal, 
and we won't treat it as such.' "

UT rules allow for a student's suspension for drinking on campus or 
at a UT event, but students cannot be punished for off-campus 
drinking. For marijuana, a student can be disciplined or suspended 
for use anywhere.

But the university rarely pursues off-campus pot users. Both alcohol 
and pot are banned in campus dorms, regardless of a student's age. So 
the referendum is largely a symbolic statement on what supporters see 
as the hypocrisy of wider marijuana laws.

Working the campus in T-shirts that read "Party Organically," a 
handful of student volunteers   aided by a group whose aim is to 
decriminalize marijuana statewide   landed about 1,400 student 
signatures on a petition to add the request to student voting set for 
Feb. 28 to March 1. University officials could not be reached to 
comment on what they would do if the referendum is approved.

The effort was originated by Safer Alternative for Enjoyable 
Recreation, or SAFER, a year-old advocacy group started in Colorado 
in response to widely reported deaths of students from drinking too 
much alcohol.

Last year, the group successfully passed referendums at the 
University of Colorado at Boulder and Colorado State University. They 
have similar projects going at the University of Florida, the 
University of Maryland, Ohio State University and State University of 
New York at Albany.

Administrators at both Colorado schools refused to put the student 
recommendations into effect. They've said they won't encourage 
illegal behavior. Like UT, they rarely punish students caught 
off-campus with marijuana.

Steve Fox, SAFER national executive director, said that the group is 
first targeting schools in capital cities to catch the attention of 
lawmakers but that the goal is to see the rules changed on all campuses.

Ultimately organizers want to see state legislatures decriminalize 
marijuana. But, unlike other pro-legalization groups that push 
medical marijuana or ending the drug war, SAFER's campaign focuses on 
the student-friendly message that weed is safer than booze.

The campaign also hopes to gain a foothold on changing attitudes 
toward marijuana, evidenced by increasing numbers of states and 
cities voting to decriminalize it as well as efforts in cities to 
reduce penalties for students.

UT health officials said that a year or two ago, the dean of 
students' office offered to stop kicking students out of the dorms if 
they were caught smoking pot in their rooms.

But campus housing officials balked, saying the smoke bothered 
nonsmoking students.

Dr. Chuck Roper, head of substance-abuse programs at UT's health 
services center, said he sees the logic behind the argument that 
marijuana isn't going to cause deaths like alcohol poisoning does. 
But organizers appear to be comparing recreational smoking to binge 
drinking instead of social drinking, he said.

"I'm not sure you're comparing apples to apples at that point," Dr. 
Roper said. "I understand the logic behind it but ... I don't think 
you should be encouraging students to break the law and get in 
trouble. Just like I don't think students should be encouraging 
students under the age of 21 to be drinking."

UT students became energized about the effort, organizers said, when 
18-year-old Phanta "Jack" Phoummarath of Houston died in December of 
alcohol poisoning after drinking at his fraternity.

"If you look at the rules about how you can be suspended from school, 
we believe the university is encouraging drinking," said Ann Del 
Llano, a civil-liberties lawyer working with SAFER Texas. "We see 
this as a life-or-death matter. If they had brought [Mr. Phoummarath] 
an infinite amount of marijuana and forced him to consume it, he'd be 
alive and breathing today." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake