IN DEFENSE OF DRUG WEEK

Happy belated 4/20 from NU NORML-SSDP, Northwestern's home to the
ever-growing drug policy reform movement. We hope that you enjoyed the
day and played it safe so that you can join us this week as we present
Drug Week here on campus. Every night, Monday through Thursday, we'll
be hosting a different event to entertain and educate you about the
harms of continuing the "War on Drugs." Like alcohol prohibition
before it, drug prohibition only exacerbates the problems it hopes to
solve, a topic we'll be discussing later this week. First, though, a
little history of Monday's epic holiday:

As cannabis lore tells it, the celebration of 4/20 has its origins in
San Rafael, Calif., where a group of delinquent students used to meet
like clockwork at 4:20 p.m. to smoke joints after school. Now we make
a day of it, but the ritual remains the same, with close friends
meeting in some discreet location to enjoy a pleasing, but prohibited,
herb.

One difference is that today's observance extends far outside
delinquent circles. The once strictly-subculture holiday grows more
ubiquitous each year, with every head bringing along three square
friends to the festivities. It happens even here at our sheltered,
elite university where otherwise law-abiding, straight-laced Wildcats
are sneaking the high back into their higher education. Drug Week events

Tuesday, April 21: "How to Have Fun and Not Die" with Eddie Einbinder,
Norris Wildcat Room, 7 p.m.

Wednesday, April 22: Three Panel Discussions, Fisk 217 5 p.m.:
Families and Children in the Drug War 6 p.m.: Race and Drugs 7:15
p.m.: Medical Marijuana and the Medical Cannabis Bill

Thursday, April 23: Drug War Debate co-sponsored by AID between Kevin
Sabet, former ONDCP adviser and writer of drug policy for the Clinton
and Bush administrations, and Jim Gierarch, member of Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition (LEAP), Fisk 217, 7 p.m.

For more information, search Facebook for "Drug Week" or email
NorthwesternNORML@gmail.com

Weed may be legal again soon, which is, of course, beyond wonderful,
but one undesirable consequence is that corporate America will co-opt
this holiday. When such harbingers of mainstream opinion such as
columnists for the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, and The
Economist are calling for legalization, you know the time is nigh.
Sadly, in a few years, 4/20 will be just another brazen consumer
holiday with TV specials, weeklong sales and Michael Buble singing Bob
Marley's greatest hits. Did anyone catch Family Guy's Episode 420 or
CNBC's Marijuana, Inc. on Sunday? It's already started -- so I hope you
enjoyed 4/20's sacred charm while it lasts.

As many of you partook in the sacrament yesterday, I hope you took
some time to ponder how that grass found its way into your lungs. Did
it come from bloody, drug war-torn Mexico? Gang-ridden Chicago
streets? Some clandestine grow house out in the suburbs? Or was it
shipped from California, that Mecca of medicinal-strength marijuana?

Whatever your source, it's good to be an informed consumer -- to
realize that before your bud found relative safety in our college
bubble, poor souls along the supply chain got arrested, jailed, some
even killed, so that you could pack your bong and blow off class. This
is why drug policy reform is important -- not so college kids like us
can get high without worrying about cops or CAs, but so millions of
people around the world currently working in an unregulated and
dangerous industry can find protection under the law. Use 4/20 and the
rest of Drug Week not to stay high, but to get involved in the
movement against the Drug War.

Holidays aside, drug policy reform is serious business. For all of you
who don't partake, know that we want you -- need you -- to be involved.
Pot puns, references and symbols are just so easy to use. We at NU
NORML-SSDP probably rely on them too much, trying to get a rise out of
you one way or another. But as much as we'd like to imagine the pot
leaf as some kind of bat symbol, we know it can be a turn off to
others and that it doesn't represent all our beliefs. Our branding
consultant tears out her hair when we speak.

If you're interested in social justice, environmental sustainability,
cooperative economics or healthcare reform, know that there's a place
for you at NU NORML-SSDP. Drug policy is at the root of some of the
most pressing problems of our time: poverty, inequality, gun crime and
failing schools. If you want to make the world a better place, there's
no better way to start than to take up the fight against insane
prohibition. Well that, or help bring peace to the Middle East -- not
that these causes are exclusive, but comparatively, to me at least,
adding a few dozen drugs to the hundreds we already regulate seems a
lot more realistic.