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."