STUDENT CLUB SUPPORTS MARIJUANA REFORM

Five students are pushing for a greener society but the organization
they recently chartered is not necessarily environmentally friendly.
Loyola University is now home to the National Organization Reform of
Marijuana Laws student organization NORML.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws,is an
activist group devoted to promoting the reform of marijuana laws. The
purpose of NORML is to push the idea that marijuana users are not
criminals and to inform people about marijuana and laws that are
active, in the making, and planning to be proposed.

Loyola's chapter of NORML is not very active at the moment due to
conflicts among the executive board, but it promises to be much more
prominent on campus next semester.

"We have five members but we are looking to expand in the spring,"
said Josh Warren, political science sophomore and executive director
of Loyola's NORML said.

Loyola can expect speakers, protests, and getting the message of NORML
out via Facebook and YouTube. Warren calls this "activism on every
level." Student Government Association chartered and approved NORML
and students such as Jacob Quimby, mass communication junior, are not
opposed to the group being on campus.

"I don't think that there should be any restrictions on campus
organizations. I really can't imagine anything they would do besides
educate people," Quimby said.

Warren urges talking amongst those who use and do not use marijuana.
He said that communication must occur, because to say nothing on the
topic is the same as saying the issue has no value. Which to him is
observed because of the positive things that come from marijuana and
the cannabis plant.

Hemp, derived from the cannabis plant, has multiple uses, all of which
NORML bring up in the case that marijuana should be made legal.

Those uses include, but are not limited to: ropes and tools, bio
fuels, and medical uses of the THC present in marijuana, which can
reduce the size of cancer tumors.

"NORML has plans to get students not only involved in the club but
also get students politically active," Warren said.