STUDENTS WANT POT PENALTIES REDUCED

FORT COLLINS (AP) -- Students at Colorado State University and the
University of Colorado are urging administrators to lighten up on
enforcement of marijuana laws because they say it's less harmful than alcohol.

Both universities have suffered student deaths this school year as a result
of alcohol poisoning. Student activists argue that penalties for smoking
marijuana should be no stiffer than those imposed for underage drinking.

Last week students signed petitions to put a marijuana referendum on the
ballot for next month's student elections.

Both votes would be nonbinding, and possession or use of marijuana would
remain a crime.

The marijuana referendum is being promoted by a group calling itself SAFER,
for Safer Alternatives for Enjoyable Recreation.

"If a fraternity told a freshman to go into the woods and smoke a pound of
pot, he is not going to die from that," said Mason Tvert, a recent
University of Virginia graduate. "He'll fall asleep before that happens."

Boulder-based SAFER was formed in January as a nonprofit and plans to
create chapters at CU and CSU.

The group, which is heading up the petition drive to get the marijuana
measure before student voters, said it hoped to have the required 2,085
signatures at CSU by today and had already obtained the necessary 1,200 at CU.