MARIJUANA FORUM ADDRESSES PENALTIES, LEGALIZATION ISSUES

More than 30 students were greeted with regular brownies and juice as they
strolled into the large conference room in the Viking Union, where a panel
of four speakers talked Monday evening about the war on drugs and issues
involving marijuana legalization.

The Drug Information Center, along with the Peace Resource Center,
organized a Marijuana Forum entitled "Hashing It Out," at 7 p.m. Monday in
the VU. Guest representatives spoke from organizations such as the American
Civil Liberties Union, Sensible Seattle and the National Organization for
Reform of Marijuana Laws.

"As a city in the state of Washington, we cannot change the criminal status
of marijuana," said Dominic Holden, Sensible Seattle's Initiative 75's
campaign manager and grass roots advocate. "But we can direct our law
enforcement not to arrest adults for marijuana possession."

Holden said that Sensible Seattle Coalition sponsored I-75, which if passed
will de-prioritize the arrests of adults in Seattle for the possession of
small amounts of marijuana. Holden said Sensible Seattle gathered more than
30,000 signatures in Seattle supporting I-75 and then the city council put
it on the September ballot.

Andy Ko, director of the ACLU of Washington, wrote the draft for I-75.

"The ACLU, over the years, has seen that more and more civil liberties
violations have been caused by the war on drugs and drug prohibition," Ko
said. "What we've seen is a constitutional violation of American's rights
against unreasonable search and seisure."

Attorney and forum speaker Alison Chinn Holcomb of Seattle said she
supports I-75 because she said money is being misappropriated for the war
on drugs.

According to the Department of Justice statistics, there were 734,498
people arrested (in America) for marijuana violation in 2002.

"The money that our government is spending on investigating, arresting,
prosecuting and imprisoning marijuana offenders could be used to make
effective treatment available for people suffering from real addictions,"
Holcomb said.

Western senior Jared Hayes, and Assistant Coordinator of the Drug
Information Center who co-organized the forum, said Western students should
become aware of the issues surrounding drug laws.

"We changed our focus from being both pro and anti to not having either,
just giving information about the war on drugs," Hayes said.

Hayes said he tried to contact the city prosecutor and the Bellingham
Police Department to bring balance to the issue but received little
cooperation.

Pat Fabiano, program director of the Prevention and Wellness Center, said
her department was not notified about the event or asked to participate.
Fabiano said an event like this would better serve Western students if the
issue was presented in a more balanced manner. Fabiano said students should
be informed about the negative affects of marijuana.

"In an area where there is so much legal and medical controversy, we as a
university have an obligation to present more than one side," Fabiano said.

Nate Johnson, director of the Peace Resource Center, worked with the Drug
Information Center to organize the event. Johnson said the war on drugs is
the most important issue discussed at the forum.

"The war on drugs is like the war on terrorism in the sense that it is a
metaphorical war that cannot be won," Johnson said. "Our legal system is
overburdened with non-violent drug users."