HAPPY DAZE

Students, Experts Talk About Risks And Benefits Of Smoking Marijuana
And The Pot Subculture At The University

Stoned, quietly watching television at his friends' apartment, he
said the police were in the room before he even knew who had come to
the door. They searched everyone and arrested him after they found a
small bag of marijuana on him. "I was a little scared and surprised,"
said the UA sophomore, who insisted on anonymity to protect his
reputation. "Well, very surprised." Getting caught can be a pot
smoker's worst nightmare, but for the many UA students who smoke pot
and will likely celebrate their subculture's holiday today, April 20
or "4/20," that fear is nearly non-existent because the habit feels
so innocent.

The sophomore said since he's been arrested he's stopped smoking, but
only because he's been subject to drug testing. He and other students
said they should be allowed to smoke pot because there's nothing
morally wrong with it. "Morals are completely subjective," he said.
"I was doing something that society sees as morally wrong in general
- - but no, I don't think it's wrong." A female sophomore who also did
not want to be identified said she had been smoking pot since the
11th grade. She said drinking alcohol is more likely to hurt people
than smoking pot.

"If people can be drunk and belligerent, then I can smoke and have a
good time," she said.

And from a medical standpoint, alcohol can be a "much more dangerous
drug" than marijuana, said Dr. David Roberts of the UA Student Health
Center. Roberts said drinking alcohol can come with greater degrees
of impairment, as well as increased degrees of violent behavior. He
said people under the influence of marijuana are generally not as
dangerous as someone who has been drinking alcohol.

But, Roberts said, smoking marijuana also comes with health problems.
He said marijuana is an irritant that can cause respiratory diseases.
Smoking pot can also reduce personal motivation and impair someone's
ability to make decisions or concentrate.

"It's not something to be using if you want to be at the top of your
game in a tough academic environment," Roberts said.

A junior majoring in education who smokes pot and also insisted on
anonymity said the drug has never affected how she performs in her
classes. She said she makes A's and B's.

"It doesn't really affect my studying," she said. "There are times
when I've studied high, and it's only had a little impact on my
concentration." Some students said that after smoking pot, they
realized many more people than criminals and hippies use the drug.
Others said they thought their personalities naturally led them to
try the substance. "When my friends were listening to Hanson, I was
listening to Jefferson Airplane," said the female sophomore. She said
marijuana helped some of her favorite artists create their greatest
works and, after doing some research, decided she wanted to
experience it as well.

She and other UA students said some of the most intelligent people
they know smoke pot. The student, who herself is in a sorority, said
a number of people she knows that use marijuana are "very involved"
in positive extracurricular activities at the Capstone.

"I've always thought of pot as the smart kids' drug," she said, but
added that marijuana use can still be taken to unhealthy extremes.
She and other pot smokers said the most common side effect is
laziness. She said some people can get carried away and even base
their friendships on pot, and she has known people who did it so
often that they started excluding friends who didn't smoke it.

Though many pot smokers claim the drug isn't addictive, Lee Keyes,
director of the UA Counseling Center, said people can develop
psychological dependencies on marijuana just as easily as any other
substance. He said addiction usually comes from students attempting
to treat depression or anxiety by using the drug.

Keyes said there is still debate among experts as to whether pot is
physiologically, or chemically, addictive, but said he's seen
students with cases of marijuana dependency so bad that its impact
has caused them to drop out of school to get counseling and rehabilitation.

Keyes said treatment can include counseling and rehabilitation, but
he said for many students they simply need help to deal with anxiety
on their own. One UA student said he had been using pot as a means of
treating anxiety and depression without even knowing it until he was
arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia and had to quit smoking
to pass drug tests. He said he didn't realize how bad he felt and
didn't know how to cope with it because smoking too much pot sedated
his feelings, but didn't solve his personal problems. Now that he's
not smoking and in counseling, he said he's made a lot of progress.

Marijuana didn't cause the depression, but getting high every day was
a "symptom" of it, he said. He said others who are depressed or
suffer from anxiety shouldn't use pot as an escape.

"It can really make it worse, because you don't see the symptoms. You
don't know how you really feel," he said.

He also said that he would eventually smoke it again, though only
from time to time. According to UA Student Judicial Affairs, 41
student non-academic misconduct violations for drug use have been
filed in the 2005-06 academic year - up only two from last year.

"We've had a lot of drug violations recently," said Tim Hebson,
Judicial Affairs director and associate dean of students.

Hebson said students who are caught with drugs and reported to
Judicial Affairs can face punishments such as academic probation or a
suspension of up to two years.

He said students caught with drugs in dormitories are usually kicked
out. Neither of the UA students who were arrested said their cases
were reported to Judicial Affairs and said they only had to face
punishment from the city. While the student in counseling said his
use of marijuana wasn't morally wrong, he called the night he was
taken to jail one of the worst in his life. But he also said it might
have been a blessing that he was caught and had to quit.

"It definitely helped me get back to normal faster than I would
have," he said. "It shocked me back into reality."