STUDENT VOLUNTEERS GO TO POT, LITERALLY

Maryland requires all public high school students to do volunteer work to
graduate. How those students donate their time is largely left up to them.

So 18-year-old Scarlett Swerdlow decided to pass on the government
internships and homeless shelters to work for a cause she fully supports:
legalizing marijuana.

The Walter Johnson High School senior got permission from her school last
semester to fulfill her service requirement by doing clerical work and
research for the Marijuana Policy Project.

``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.''

Swerdlow was later joined at the project's Washington office by a classmate,
17-year-old Keely Owens. The project's communications director, Chuck
Thomas, couldn't be happier.

``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,'' Thomas said.

The project says it now plans to seek volunteers from other public high
schools. ``It's a win-win situation because either we get the volunteer help
or we sue the schools and get the attention,'' Thomas said.

Kathy McGuire, an official for the Montgomery County Public Schools, said
the project isn't on the district's list of approved organizations. That
means school officials and a parent must approve it for each student.

``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 this particular trail. The teen ranked in the top 5
percent of her class, and both she and Owens were National Merit commended
scholars.

``It was somewhat controversial, but she clearly believed in it,'' said
Trachtenberg, a social worker who counsels adolescents. ``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.