Pubdate: Sun, 04 Apr 2010
Source: Daily Sentinel, The (Grand Junction, CO)
Copyright: 2010 Cox Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.gjsentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2084
Author: Emily Anderson

COLLEGE DORMS BAN USE OF MEDICAL MARIJUANA

A statewide jump in medical marijuana card applications  doesn't seem
to have affected college students much  when it comes to living in
residence halls.

The majority of Colorado's four-year public  institutions require
students, with few exceptions, to  live on-campus their first one or
two years. None of  them allows medical marijuana cardholders to smoke
  marijuana in residence halls.

Mesa State College is one of those schools, requiring  freshmen and
sophomores under the age of 21 who don't  live with a parent or spouse
in Mesa County to live in  a college residence hall. In those halls,
it's against  college policy to smoke or store marijuana, whether
it's used for medical reasons or not, according to John  Marshall, the
college's vice president for student  services.

"It's simply not something we can accommodate," he
said.

Marijuana, tobacco, alcohol and nonprescription drugs  are all banned
from Mesa State residence halls. Medical  marijuana is not addressed
separately from marijuana in  general in the student housing guide,
but Marshall said  that would be remedied by the fall.

So far, no students have asked the college to be  released from the
freshman and sophomore requirement to  live on campus so they can use
a medical marijuana card  off-campus, Marshall said. But some schools
have  experienced that, including the University of Colorado  at Boulder.

CU Director of Residence Life Paula Bland said she is  not sure
exactly how many students at the school have  asked to have their
housing deposit returned so they  can use medical marijuana. But it
has happened a  handful of times this year, she said.

"It's probably more this year than it was last year.  Last year we
just started seeing students have medical  marijuana cards," she said.

Bland said all of the requests came midyear, when a  student already
had been living in a residence hall and  wanted to move out.

Fort Lewis College spokesman Mitch Davis said he  wouldn't be
surprised if the college received some  requests from cardholders to
live off-campus, but so  far that hasn't happened.

Colorado State University spokesman Brad Bohlander and  University of
Northern Colorado spokesman Nate Haas  said they haven't heard of any
students on their  campuses asking to live off-campus to use medical
marijuana.

As of Sept. 30, the average age of a medical marijuana  patient was
40, according to Colorado Department of  Public Health and
Environment. The department reported  at that time Mesa County had the
10th largest amount of  cardholders in the state. 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D