MARCHING FOR A NORML LIFE

Who needs the Million Marijuana March as an excuse to smoke up? Not NYU
students, according to the 2001 Princeton Review report which NYU ranked
No. 1 out of 331 colleges in the category of "reefer madness." Ironically,
the Million Marijuana March, which will take place this Saturday, is
actually a day when students should not smoke up - at least not in public.

"There is a difference between going down there and voicing your opinion
and trying to get something changed, and just smoking a joint," said Nathan
McCune, president of NYU-NORML (National Organization for Reform of
Marijuana Laws).

The Million Marijuana March begins with a noon rally at the corner of
Washington Place and Broadway, followed by a march down Broadway to Battery
Park. There, protesters organized by several pro-marijuana groups,
including Cures-Not-Wars, Clergy for Cannabis, the Marijuana Reform Party,
Queers for Weed and NYU-NORML, will engage in a "hempfest" protesting
strict marijuana criminalization laws and calling on NYU to hurry up with
the ibogaine trial.

"The No. 1 demand is to stop all cannabis arrests," said Dana Beal, founder
of Cures-Not-Wars, a grassroots marijuana decriminalization and ibogaine
legalization group. "It's also about a health movement to offer melatonin
to marijuana users and ibogaine to heroin and hard-drug users."

According to Beal, NYU has been "half-supporting, half-tripping up the
research" about ibogaine, a psychedelic drug derived from the African iboga
plant which has been known to accelerate the process of overcoming drug
addiction.

Michael Haberman, the director of Government and Community Relations at
NYU, said that even though NYU supports the NORML branch which exists on
campus, NYU does not support the march.

"NYU and a lot of community groups have been working for a number of years
to get drug dealers out of Washington Square Park," he said. "This parade
promotes the exact opposite of that."

Yet organizers say they adamantly discourage protesters from smoking
marijuana at any point during the rally, march or gathering in the Battery.

"It's not about smoking pot," Beal said. "It's about protesting the laws."

Greg Benjamin, a sophomore in the Gallatin School of Individualized Study,
plans on participating in the march with NYU-NORML but not smoking at it.

"I'm going to stick with the tactics that are legal," he said. "I'm going
to the march because it's something I believe in and I'm willing to take
the necessary steps to make it a reality."

Despite some negative attitudes towards NYU-NORML's views on marijuana
legalization, McCune feels participation in the rally supports a realistic
cause.

"Our goal is restricted legalization," he said. "A government-controlled
substance, like nicotine or alcohol."