SGA PASSES RESOLUTION TOWARD DECRIMINALIZING MARIJUANA - NEWS

Amid a nationwide debate on the legality of marijuana, last month the
Florida State University Student Government Association passed a
resolution in support of two federal bills on marijuana.

The bills, HR5842 and HR5843, would both move federal law toward
weakening penalties for possession of marijuana and both go before
the United States House of Representatives in the 2009 session.
HR5843, of particular interest to proponents of decriminalization,
would abolish criminal penalties for possession of up to 100 grams of
marijuana. While redundant state laws would effectively eliminate any
pragmatic effects for Floridians were the bill to pass through the
House and U.S. Senate, FSU NORML President John Mola said that the
bill would nonetheless be a victory for pro-legalization groups such
as NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).

"If the federal government decided that it was in their best interest
to leave it up to the states to decide, it would leave the door open
for us to further work on trying to get it decriminalized in
Florida," Mola said.

FSU SGA Resolution 67, which was voted through the student senate by
a 12-to-10 vote on Aug. 6, was authored and sponsored by FSU Sen.
Forat Lutfi, who had listened to Mola speak "several times" in front
of Senate before approaching him to propose the resolution.

Lutfi himself is not involved in any pro-legalization groups and
cited the 2006 "safer initiative" - an item on the ballot in the 2006
SGA elections at FSU in which 60 percent of the voting student body
voted in favor of decriminalization - as his primary reason for
drafting the resolution.

"A lot of students feel strongly about the decriminalization of
marijuana," Lutfi said. "As senators, it's our duty to represent the
voice of all students. That was my main concern: to make sure their
voice was heard."

While he believes that the legal status of marijuana, like that of
any drug, should be the "people's choice to decide," Lutfi said that
he personally believed that the illegality of marijuana in the U.S.
was doing more harm than it was helping.

"I think that it's similar, really, to prohibition," Lutfi said. "I
don't think it's something that we succeed in actually ending, and I
think it puts a lot of non-violent criminals in jail, and I think a
lot of funding could be diverted away from that to more serious
penalties and crimes."

Lutfi stressed, though, that the resolution is not an endorsement of
marijuana abuse or drug use of any kind, and that much of the debate
on the resolution in senate was not on decriminalization so much as
it is on whether or not decriminalization should be a federal issue
or, as is implied (according to Lutfi) in Amendment 10 of the U.S.
Constitution, a state issue.

The bill would, as a practical measure, have a far greater effect in
states like California, where marijuana has already been
decriminalized at a local level, but the FSU SGA will nonetheless
send copies of the bill to both Representatives in the federal and
state legislatures in the hope that Florida will move toward decriminalization.

FSU NORML, meanwhile, will continue in its efforts into September
with an upcoming "Fall Benefit Concert Extravaganja" on Sept. 5. The
concert will be held at the American Legion Hall, and profits from
the $7 cover charge will go toward paying for a pro-decriminalization
billboard on Tennessee Street.

"What we're hoping to accomplish is simply getting people to be aware
that there's a movement to legalize marijuana in Tallahassee," Mola
said. "The billboard will attract attention to decriminalization and
basically just get the conversation going in the community."