MARIJUANA GROWS UP

Dr. James Alford, the former President/CEO of the NKU Foundation, is set to
appear in court this week to face charges of marijuana trafficking.

He was arrested Dec. 19 after police found marijuana, plastic baggies and a
.38-caliber revolver in his home during a warranted search.

His case provides an interesting backdrop for discussion of the
legalization of marijuana.

At 52, and the former head of the fund raising arm of a growing university,
Alford seems like the last person who would be facing such charges.

Marijuana is a drug associated with high school and college students in
their teens and twenties, not older, professional persons.

In fact, people in their thirties, forties and fifties who use or sell the
drug for recreational purposes are seen as stunted and immature.

This belief stems largely from popular culture.

Marijuana is, arguably, one of the only drugs that bridges a generation gap
between parents in their forties and fifties and their children in their
late teens and early twenties.

It is a drug that both generations are familiar with if not from first-hand
experience then from friends or schoolmates, or more likely from some facet
of popular culture.

The generation of people now in their forties and fifties laughed at Cheech
and Chong, even if they had never used marijuana.

A younger generation now has similar drug movies, including "Half Baked,"
which follows the misadventures of four friends who smoke marijuana and get
in trouble with a local drug dealer.

Because of theses movies, as well as some music and television shows,
marijuana is slowly moving out of the category of uncontrolled substance
and into the realm of nicotine and alcohol.

But should it be treated the same way?

The legalization of marijuana has become a hot, and confusing, topic in
some states.

In San Francisco last month a jury first convicted an outspoken marijuana
activist on drug charges then publicly renounced their own verdict saying
the man had not received a fair trial.

Members of the jury said they had not been told the man was growing
marijuana as part of Oakland's medical marijuana program.

Advocates extol the medicinal virtues of the drug while the ad council
recently began running commercials warning against marijuana use and it's
ability to prohibit some functions.

Is it worth fighting marijuana growers, dealers, sellers and users, or
would making it legal create a slope for people to fall into other, more
dangerous drugs?

At NKU, would it be worth it to have Alford back if he is, in fact,
convicted, to work on raising funds, especially while the university faces
monumental budget cuts?

These are the decisions we'll be forced to make as marijuana matures
alongside the population.