MARYLAND STUDENTS VOTE TO EASE MARIJUANA PENALTIES

Students at the University of Maryland, College Park joined a growing
national movement this month when they approved a referendum calling
for a relaxation of the school's marijuana policies.

The referendum, which was included on the ballot for student
government elections, urges administrators to penalize marijuana
possession the same way as alcohol violations. Nearly two-thirds of
students supported the measure, though only 4,500 of the school's
25,000 undergraduates voted in the election.

The vote carries only symbolic weight, as students have no power to
change the school's drug policy. But administrators said they will
examine the issue.

"All actions taken by our student government are taken seriously,"
said Millree Williams, director of university communications. "The
university will give it consideration, as it does any student initiative."

In recent years, students at the University of Colorado, Colorado
State University, the University of Texas and Florida State
University have passed similar proposals, though the efforts have not
yet prompted any of the schools to revise their policies.

Maryland senior Damien Nichols, president of the school's chapter of
Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the leader of the referendum
campaign, said he recognizes the referendum is not a "quick fix" to
the school's drug policies, which he described as "awful" and said
were responsible for an "epidemic" of arrests and evictions on campus.

"The referendum was one step of many," he said. "Now it's time to get
our nose to the grindstone."

In the months ahead, Nichols said he and his supporters will be
drafting specific proposals and lobbying administrators to change the
current policy.

But while advocates for reform can now claim to have student support
behind them, their prospects for success are far from certain.

"They have an uphill battle ahead of them," said Devin Ellis, a
Maryland senior and chief of staff of the school's Student Government
Association. "Really, the people who they're going to have to go
after are the state-level decision-makers."

Still, Ellis said he thinks Nichols and his supporters made a good
move by gauging students' opinions on the issue.

"They've really gotten very organized this year," he said. "They knew
exactly what they wanted and exactly how to go about getting it."

Nichols decided to push for the referendum after he was contacted by
a representative of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, a
Denver-based non-profit that promotes marijuana as an alternative to
alcohol. In November 2005, SAFER achieved its biggest victory to date
when Denver residents voted to decriminalize the possession and
consumption of less than one ounce of marijuana.

But even as the movement to relax drug policies gathers strength at
schools across the country, Daniel MacCombie '08, president of
Brown's SSDP chapter, said he does not anticipate replicating the
actions of his Maryland counterparts.

"Brown students are pretty satisfied right now with how the
University deals with drug abuse," MacCombie said, describing the
school's policy as "reasonable" and "equitable."

In addition, MacCombie said, Brown currently does not have a
mechanism for the type of referendum passed at Maryland, though he
said it might be possible to demonstrate student support for
potential reforms by pressuring the Undergraduate Council of Students
to pass a resolution on the issue or including a question on a WebCT poll.

MacCombie said the preponderance of evidence is on the side of those
who support the relaxation of marijuana laws.

"All the scientific evidence has shown that the negative consequences
of marijuana are equal to, if not less than, those of alcohol," he
said. "Current differences between alcohol and marijuana punishments
are due to politics, not science."