BAKE SALE TO PROMOTE LEGALIZING MARIJUANA

Herb-friendly stickers will pepper the HUB lawn today during the UW's
first-ever Legalize Marijuana Bake Sale.

The UW chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) organized
the bake sale with the campus Libertarians to show support for
marijuana decriminalization, said Leoule Goshu, co-president of the
ACLU at the UW. Members of the two organizations will sell brownies
(no, not "those" brownies) from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

In particular, members of the ACLU at the UW feel the federal
government should legalize the use of medical marijuana, which can be
used to treat the side effects of illnesses like cancer, multiple
sclerosis and glaucoma, according to the National Institutes of
Health. Washington and 10 other states have already legalized the use
of marijuana with a doctor's prescription.

"It's mostly about the privacy between a doctor and a patient," said
Kate Sawatzki, co-president of the ACLU at the UW. "We support that a
doctor who went to school and has all the experience to be a
practitioner will know better than a politician when medical
marijuana is appropriate."

The brownies will be pot-free, but sprinkled with dried mint leaves
"to get the illusion," said Don Rasmussen, president of the
Libertarians of the University of Washington.

The Libertarian Party feels the war against marijuana has been more
damaging than actual use of the drug, he added.

"Ninety-five to 100 million Americans have admitted to using
marijuana," Rasmussen said. "The effect of marijuana criminalization
is to label one-third of all Americans as criminals."

Goshu said he feels marijuana should be "regulated and heavily taxed,
but not banned."

Proceeds from the bake sale will go toward Pakistani earthquake
relief, which Goshu feels has received too little attention in the media.

The organizations also plan to provide recipes for homemade "special
brownies" that can be baked from scratch.

"As the government says, 'Knowledge is power'," Goshu said.