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GROUP MEMBERS PICKED UP TRASH

National Organization of Reform Marijuana Laws members assembled this past Wednesday to pick up trash on the group's adopted one-mile stretch of Interstate 70.

"The main thing, don't pick up animal carcasses, don't touch needles, glass," NORML member sophomore Brandon Jordan said of roadside safety.

NORML members carpooled to the north side of I-70 between Clark Lane and Rangeline Street.  Members of both NORML and Students for Sensible Drug Policy headed to the littered grass with gloves and garbage bags in hand.

"It's really nice for a group, especially one that's looked down upon like NORML and SSDP, to get out there and show that we're an active part of the community," said Jordan, who is also the president for SSDP.  "We're not the stereotypes that everybody thinks we are, and this is one way to help."

NORML Secretary Michael Keith also volunteered to help clean up the highway.

"It helps," Keith said.  "It shows people that people care."

Before the highway pickup, members of NORML and SSDP met to discuss a plan of action to eliminate part of the Higher Education Act that does not grant loans to federal financial aid applicants who have been convicted of a drug-related felony.

"When you apply for federal funding through Free Application for Federal Student Aid there is a question on there asking if you have ever been convicted of a drug-related felony" Jordan said.  "It does not ask if you have committed murder, if you have been convicted of any other type of felony, only if it's a drug-related conviction."

The groups decided to lobby Congress to try and get this portion of the FAFSA eliminated.

If SSDP and others are unable to convince Congress to have the question removed from the financial aid application this year, it will be another seven years to attempt its removal again when the committee meets to review the past applications, said Jordan.