Director of Marijuana Policy Project urged policy change during speech

While he was a student at Penn State, Rob Kampia was arrested for
growing marijuana for recreational use and spent three months in jail
in 1991. The next year he was elected student body president.

Kampia, now executive director of the non-profit advocacy group
Marijuana Policy Project, spoke Tuesday night in the Reitz Union
Auditorium urging listeners to take his example and lobby for the
legalization of medical marijuana and recreational marijuana.

"We want to end marijuana prohibition, and tax and regulate marijuana
so that adults can use marijuana responsibly and not fear getting
arrested or going to jail," Kampia said.

The Marijuana Policy Project is funded by independent donors and is
taking initiative in introducing bills to Congress in many states to
end prohibition, attracting attention from local and national media.

"The Marijuana Policy Project is the cash cow of the marijuana law
reform movement," said Lewis Kirvan, spokesman for NORML UF.

The project attracted attention from the media and made the cover of
Time magazine and many national papers.

"This campaign is going to be the flagship campaign," Kampia said.

Frequent applause and cheering accompanied Kampia's legal-battle
success stories. One student made an oversized poster of Kampia and
held it up periodically throughout the speech.

"He's someone students can relate to," said Jaylen McGrew, vice
president of NORML UF. "He knows the ins and outs of the system. He
knows the tragedies, and he knows the triumphs."

Kampia told students to write letters to senators and representatives
to get involved in marijuana reform in Florida, one of the only large
states that does not address the medical marijuana issue, he said.

Kampia said a bill to end marijuana prohibition in Nevada will be
included in the 2006 election, but only because legalization
advocates were persistent in their fight.

Kampia said the bill would allow the state government to tax and
regulate marijuana, making marijuana more legal in Nevada than Holland.

"The laws we're passing now have real teeth, and they're kicking
ass," Kampia said.

Kampia said he hopes initiatives like this will take hold in many
states and eventually reach the federal government.

His 12-to 13-year strategy to end prohibition nationwide has already
taken foot in Vermont, he said.

After a three-year lobbying campaign to legalize medical marijuana in
Vermont, the lobbyists won, making Vermont the ninth state to
legalize medical marijuana use.

"It requires not taking 'no' for an answer but pressuring, pressuring
and pressuring to get laws passed," Kampia said.

He said they pressured the government by gathering in the Vermont
Congress with red shirts with the words: "Stop arresting medical
marijuana users."

UF student Erica Carlsson said he presented very useful information.

"He gave the viewers many resources as well as information to arm
them with knowledge to create change," Carlsson said.

The speech was presented by NORML, Reitz Union Board and Accent.