CU, BOULDER HUDDLE TO SNUFF POT RALLY

Boulder (AP) - University of Colorado administrators and local public
health officials are trying to figure out ways to make an annual campus
pro-marijuana rally blow away like a puff of smoke.

Every April 20, pot enthusiasts gather in the middle of CU's Farrand Field
to smoke copious amounts of marijuana. Typically, police don't intervene.

But given the scandals currently rocking the school, Ron Stump, vice
chancellor for student affairs, said he thinks tolerating crowds of
hundreds of people cheerfully getting stoned definitely sends the wrong
message.

"I think there's some students who feel that it doesn't represent them and
it's not appropriate on our campus," Stump said. "I think they'd like to
see us do something."

Stump, who discussed the issue with city and county officials during a
meeting last week, said he doesn't yet know what concrete steps the
administration will take to discourage students from going ganja next month.

At this point, he said, he wants to talk to student leaders to see what
ideas they can come up with to keep the event from happening.

Increased police presence "could be" one way of discouraging the rally,
Stump said.

Mason Tvert, head of a Boulder-based nonprofit that emphasizes the relative
safety of marijuana compared with alcohol, said the school shouldn't be
trying to shut out the rally's message of marijuana tolerance.

"This is something a whole lot of people believe in, and I think the
university should listen," he said.

Boulder County Public Health Director Chuck Stout said he hopes to see the
rally disappear, but not because he disagrees with its message. Those
engaging in spliff-smoking civil disobedience will have a point when they
argue that their illegal substance causes less harm than legal alcohol use,
Stout said.

"This isn't to make a statement that marijuana is the most evil thing out
there," he said. "Alcohol, frankly, from a medical perspective, can be far
more dangerous than marijuana."

But the public is increasingly associating CU with continuing fallout from
the football program's sex and recruiting scandal and its party-school
image, Stout said.

Pictures of hundreds of stoned undergrads won't exactly help, he said.

"This is a world-class university that we're very proud of," he said.