WHEN HIGH SCHOOL VOLUNTEERS GO TO POT -- LITERALLY

BETHESDA, Md. (AP) -- Maryland requires all public high school
students to do volunteer work to graduate. How those students donate
their time is largely left up to them.

So 18-year-old Scarlett Swerdlow decided to pass on the government
internships and homeless shelters to work for a cause she fully
supports: legalizing marijuana.

The Walter Johnson High School senior got permission from her school
last semester to fulfill her service requirement by doing clerical
work and research for the Marijuana Policy Project.

"I think there's definitely irony, but it's good," Swerdlow said. "I
think it's important that students and teachers realize prohibition is
really harmful."

Swerdlow was later joined at the project's Washington office by a
classmate, 17-year-old Keely Owens. The project's communications
director, Chuck Thomas, couldn't be happier.

"Now that Scarlett has jumped through the hoops herself and gotten us
approved as an allowable organization, we think it will be much easier
to reach hundreds of students in Montgomery County, if not thousands
of students nationwide," Thomas said.

The project says it now plans to seek volunteers from other public
high schools. "It's a win-win situation because either we get the
volunteer help or we sue the schools and get the attention," Thomas
said.

Kathy McGuire, an official for the Montgomery County Public Schools,
said the project isn't on the district's list of approved
organizations. That means school officials and a parent must approve
it for each student.

"It may be something that is not my cup of tea, or what I think the
kids should be doing," McGuire said. "But the parents have signed off
on it."

Swerdlow's mother, Duchy Trachtenberg, said her daughter was probably
the perfect student to blaze this particular trail. The teen ranked in
the top 5 percent of her class, and both she and Owens were National
Merit commended scholars.

"It was somewhat controversial, but she clearly believed in it," said
Trachtenberg, a social worker who counsels adolescents. "I think it
took a lot of courage and I think it's an educational opportunity."

Maryland and the District of Columbia both require public school
students to do community service for graduation, according to the
Corporation for National Service. At least a hundred school districts
nationwide have some form of service learning requirement.

Of course, Swerdlow and Owens aren't the first students to stretch the
requirement's boundaries by donating their time to advocating a
controversial topic.

Several years ago, some Maryland students even met their school's service
learning requirement by joining a group that lobbies against
service learning requirements.