"JUST SAY NO" NOT GOOD POT POLICY

Natalie Avon's column about SAFER ("Herb or Hops?" Sept. 13)
demonstrates her naivete when it comes to the culture of partying on
college campuses.

She suggests college students stay home on weekends and have a bowl
of ice cream instead of partaking in alcohol or marijuana use. First,
she should consider that high-fat diets consisting of ice cream cause
even more deaths each year than alcohol and marijuana combined. But
more importantly, her proposal is a public policy disaster on par
with preaching abstinence over educating people about practicing safe sex.

Let's face it. College students are going to be faced with countless
opportunities to drink and to use marijuana, and many (if not most)
are going to take these opportunities, regardless of whether Ms. Avon
chooses to partake.

But why on earth would a college want to steer its students toward
using alcohol by punishing them more for making the safer choice to
use marijuana instead? After all, every objective study conducted on
alcohol and marijuana has found the former to be far more harmful to
both the user and to society.

Isn't it about time we stop teaching students to drink responsibly
and start teaching them to party responsibly?

Mason Tvert

Campaign Director, SAFER