SUPPORT FAIR DRUG POLICIES

Today, the SGA will hear a bill that would support the RHA vote last
February to urge the administration to reduce first-time possession of
small amounts of marijuana to a B-level offense, thus lessening the
draconian punishments the university currently imposes on students
unfortunate enough to have been busted on the campus. Not only would a
victory in the SGA affirm that the ramifications of such a reckless
and counter-intuitive policy have inflicted far greater damage on the
university than the drug itself ever could, but it would also have a
further reaching and verifiable impact: It would demonstrate that the
student body has the capacity to generate change and influence the
highest echelons of the university.

Few student groups have been so adamant about reforming university
policy as the Students for Sensible Drug Policy and National
Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, who have led a tireless
campaign to end the senseless and misguided drug policies that have
resulted in countless first offenders losing financial aid (many of
whom are then unable to resume college), enduring harsh and
unreasonable mandatory testing and infringing upon the rights of all
students who can be searched, handcuffed and prosecuted all at the
behest of a residence assistant who may smell marijuana coming from a
room.

However, a positive vote from the SGA reinforces the message already
sent to the university last year when the majority of students voted
to lessen penalties for marijuana offenses. Although the university
continues to place possession of marijuana in the same category as
theft and rape, the student body should not remain silent or
complacent in the face of such intolerable and abusive policies.

There are a number of contentious university policies that students
have repeatedly expressed the desire to change, or at least to have
more influence over in the decision-making process. Soaring textbook
prices and the riot policy are just a few of them, and like most other
such controversies, students have had little success in getting their
voices heard by top university officials. However, no other
student-related issue has garnered the popular support that drug
reform has, despite countless setbacks from both the university and
its various legislative bodies. If the university persists in refusing
to adhere to the wishes of its student body, it would be a deliberate
affront to our rights as students to have our voices heard in
determining what policies are both practical and just.

It is important to remember that reducing marijuana-related offenses
to a B-level violation is not tantamount to endorsing the drug itself.
It would only affect how the university views the offense and how it
chooses to punish its students. That the State of Maryland or the
federal government have enacted such severe prohibition laws does not
obligate our university to mimic their destructive policies simply
because we receive state funds. The university is an independent
entity and not beholden to the wishes or demands of the state, and as
such, our guidelines and rules should embody our own values and
standards. Giving students a second chance without undercutting their
funds, housing and perhaps any perceptions they may have about living
under a fair, competent police force seems like a positive deviation
from state guidelines, and one that could go even a long way to
bringing forth positive change in the state of Maryland.

While there are those who do not partake in marijuana or see the
movement to decriminalize it as too futile to actively embrace, one
should remember that not only are their tax dollars funding the
incarceration of first-time and low-level offenders, but also that
they have the actual means to generate change, and that their support
to curtail police involvement in the dorms and regular civil rights
abuses would have a profound and lasting impact on our university. A
simple e-mail or visit to your SGA representative asking him or her to
vote for the upcoming bill would go a long way to improving our
university and proving that student support really means something.

Scott Ratner is a sophomore government and politics major.