SSDP PETITIONS TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA

Campaign Fights War On Drugs

Hempfest took place Wednesday, and several students let their voices
be heard about marijuana legalization.

Students lined up to sign the petition for Just Say Now, a campaign
against marijuana prohibition. The campaign's purpose is to show the
"higher-ups" that there are a lot of voices that support marijuana
legalization and to educate people on the benefits of legalization.
The message was spread in large part by Students for Sensible Drug
Policy, a student group dedicated to fighting the war on drugs.

"If you ever heard of the D.A.R.E program, they always promoted 'Just
Say No' back in the '80s. Well, we're promoting Just Say Now, which is
to legalize marijuana now," said Samir Suthar, a junior in theater
studies and member of SSDP.

Just Say Now is SSDP's way to put a foot down on marijuana
prohibition, said Nicole Murphy, a senior in history and vender
coordinator for Hempfest.

"This prohibition is ridiculous,

she said. "We're students, and we can stand up, and we have the right
to say what we believe in."

It would be nice to have marijuana available agriculturally,
medicinally and recreationally, Suthar said. Many of the materials
used in the older times were made of hemp-like the Declaration of
Independence, he said. Abraham Lincoln lit his reading lamps with hemp
oil, and Francis Scott Key wrote part of the "Star Spangled Banner" on
a hemp envelope, he said.

Hemp is a seed of the plant Cannabis sativa. It has been cultivated
worldwide for more than 10,000 years and provides raw materials for
food and fiber, according to a Hemp History Week brochure. It was
banned in 1957 for confusion with the drug variety of the plant-hemp
plants contain zero percent tetrahdrocannabinol, the primary
ingredient for marijuana.

Hemp is also used in auto parts and foods, said Stephanie Smith, a
senior in political science and a member of SSDP.

California will vote on Proposition 19 on Nov. 2, which would give
marijuana a similar legal status to alcohol or tobacco. If passed, the
ruling would legalize the sale of marijuana to any individual, and the
drug could be smoked as long as it wasn't in public, much like the
open-container laws with alcohol.

"If California passes this, we would likely see Washington and Oregon
follow quickly, and then Colorado and maybe Texas," Suthar said.

U students understand the majority of Utah is conservative, making
such a feat difficult.

"Utah will definitely be the last of the Western states to legalize
marijuana," Smith said.

Zachery Cox, a senior in anthropology and treasurer for SSDP, believes
marijuana should be legalized.

"The prohibition of marijuana is doing more harm than it is doing
good," Cox said.

The United States spends $20 billion each year to fight the war on
drugs, and the people involved with drug cartels are making more than
$70 billion a year, Cox said.

"I believe everyone should be able to smoke marijuana because it has
almost no negative effects that are drastic," said Dylan Weight, a
freshman in chemistry who signed the petition. "I want to support
anything that helps legalize the drug."

It's important for people to understand both sides of the fight,
Suthar said.

"It'll be very hard to legalize marijuana with a Mormon majority
population, but we just need to keep on advertising its benefits,"
Weight said. "Weed should be legalized so I could smoke it every day."