U-M SHUNS ITS DUBIOUS DRUG DISTINCTION

High on the list of lists where a school doesn't want to see its name is
the list of best places to get high.

As fall semester begins in Ann Arbor, alas, the University of Michigan
finds itself at No. 6 among the nation's "Top 10 Cannabis Colleges."

Bummer, dude.

High Times magazine -- which, in a surprising development, still exists --
praises U-M in its October issue for the annual Hash Bash and credits the
university with "some of the best grass the Midwest marijuana scene has to
offer." U-M also gets points for launching the Students for a Democratic
Society and several other free-spirited movements that haven't been much of
a presence since Cheech and Chong were making records.

Dean of Students Susan Eklund says the list "is certainly not the type of
thing U-M likes to appear on, to say the least," even if most of High
Times' readers won't remember it the next day. She also says that on a
campus full of smart people, dope is not a major issue.

"I am not an ostrich. I know what happens in society," she says. "But
marijuana is not one of the problems that crosses my desk on a routine basis."

Michigan is the second-oldest, third-most-expensive and fourth-largest
institution in the Top 10, which is headed by the University of Colorado
and the University of Wisconsin. Both schools are in cities often compared
to Ann Arbor, as in "Ann Arbor with mountains" and "Ann Arbor with cheese."

For all of U-M's immensity, says Department of Public Safety spokeswoman
Diane Brown, the school had only 71 drug arrests in calendar 2004. Brown
also points out that, 1) Only four of the 212 people arrested or ticketed
at Hash Bash since 2000 were U-M students, and 2) she hates Hash Bash a lot.

Hash Bash began in 1972 as a celebration of newly relaxed marijuana laws in
Ann Arbor. It pops up on the first Saturday of every April, and crowds have
dwindled from as many as 10,000 people in the old days to maybe a 10th of
that the past few years.

Brown divides the crowd into three constituencies, starting with "old
hippies, looking older and older every year. They stay for their one hour
and then get out of there so they can go smoke." Next come gawkers,
enjoying their free admission to the 1970s museum. Finally, and
"unfortunately," she says, "there are a huge number of high school students."

By the end of the afternoon, Brown reports, the aroma of dope, sweat,
incense and silly little clove cigarettes mingle into something "incredibly
horrible. It's the worst day I have to work." But that's secondary to her
main point, which is that U-M's reputation is unduly affected by a bunch of
17-year-olds who should be grounded.

On the other hand, 33 percent of Michigan undergraduates in a comprehensive
2003 U-M health survey said they had used marijuana within the past year.
Given the limited number of arrests per annum -- 66 in 2002, 36 in 2003 --
U-M students either reformed in a hurry, or they learned to wedge towels
into that space below the door.

Michigan State University also conducts a massive student survey every
other year, but it's hard to compare apples to apples, let alone Hershey's
to Hershey's.

Dennis Martell, coordinator for health education at MSU, says its 2004
study found that 63.6 percent of the students had never used marijuana, and
21.6 percent had not used it in the past month. Whether that means they
used it the month before or in 1998 is undetermined.

Each university considers alcohol a far greater threat than marijuana to
health and safety. Since Modern Brewery Age doesn't do 10-best rankings,
they are safe from that particular embarrassment, and a knowledgeable
source suggests that Michigan need not blush about its place in the
cannabis countdown.

"You probably shouldn't decide where to spend four years of your life based
on a Top 10 list in a magazine," High Times says. "Particularly this magazine."