MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT SEEKS HIGH SCHOOL VOLUNTEERS

BETHESDA, Md. -- Maryland may require its high school students to do
volunteer work to graduate, but how the students donate their time is
largely left up to them.

So two Walter Johnson High School seniors decided to work for a cause they
support: legalizing marijuana.

Eighteen-year-old Scarlett Swerdlow got permission from her high school
last semester to fulfill her service learning requirement by doing clerical
work and research for the Marijuana Policy Project.

She was later joined at the MPP's Washington office by a classmate,
17-year-old Keely Owens.

"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." The MPP says it now plans to seek volunteers from other public
high schools.

"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," MPP Communications Director Chuck Thomas said. "It's
a win-win situation because either we get the volunteer help or we sue the
schools and get the attention."

Swerdlow, who went undefeated during her years on the school's speech team,
decided to volunteer at the MPP after a speech she gave on marijuana law
reform was criticized by judges, who called the topic inappropriate.

Thomas suggested she put her hours at the organization toward her service
learning requirement.

"A lot of times, we just wait until a perfect opportunity comes our way"
said Thomas. He said people convicted of drug offenses have also
volunteered at the MPP for their mandatory community service.

Swerdlow said she and her classmates were startled by how easy it was to
get permission from the school service learning coordinator.

"She just kind of looked at the form and said, 'Yeah, it's approved,"'
Swerdlow said.

Kathy McGuire, director for comprehensive pupil services for Montgomery
County Public Schools, said the MPP is not on the district's list of
approved organizations, which includes such organizations as the
Alzheirner's Association, the Anacostia Watershed Society and the
Montgomery County public libraries.

That means a school official and a parent must approve it for each
individual student, she said.

"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 that particular trail. The teen-ager was in the
top five percent of her class, and both and Owens were National Merit
commended scholars.

"I'm sure Scarlett had all I's dotted and T's crossed," said Trachtenberg,
a social worker who counsels adolescents. "It was somewhat controversial, I
she clearly believed in it... 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. Califormia is considering a
similar requirement, according to the Corporation for National Service.

At least a hundred school district scattered throughout nearly all 50
states have a service learning requirement.

Swerdlow and Owens are not the first students to stretch the requirement's
boundaries.

"'Students have gotten credit for advocating that service learning go
away," said Luke Frazier, the director of the Maryland Student Service
Alliance, which is part of the state Department of Education.

Several years ago, some Carroll County students met the requirement by
lobbying against service learning, Frazier said.

About the same time, the Ayn Rand Institute argued in several newspapers,
including The Washington Post, that service learning was involuntary
servitude. The Marina del Rey, Calif-based organization encouraged students
to volunteer there as a protest against the requirement.

"We believe that the individual is sacred, and he has the right to life,
liberty and the pursuit of his own happiness." said Scott McConnell,
communications director for Ayn Rand Institute. McConnell said the
institute usually has two or three volunteers at any given time.

"Personally I would much rather support that kind of effort simply because
the legality issue of it;" Frazier said. "The (MPP) stands for the
legalization of something that is currently illegal."

Frazier said he would recommend that school officials examine whether
volunteering for the MPP contradicts any of the school's safety or drug
policies.

"But it's a local issue," he said. "It's a safety issue. It doesn't seem to
be a political issue so much, or shouldn't be."