SAFER: Students Push for Parity of Punishment for Pot & Booze

The Inside Higher Ed headline, Can We Be Buds? The story is about a student group, SAFER (Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation), pressing the same college presidents pushing lowering the drinking age onto the national agenda to pick up pot. Figuratively, of course:

SAFER, a nonprofit organization that supports the reform of marijuana laws, is calling on college presidents to join its cause, arguing that students would be safer taking bong hits than tequila shots. The group is specifically seeking the endorsement of presidents who signed the Amethyst Initiative, which stated that the current legal drinking age of 21 might be contributing to drinking deaths and should be re-examined.

The students make a good point. They call their plea the “Emerald Imitative.” Those college presidents appear to want nothing to do with it. But don’t these students sound reasonable?

At Purdue University, for instance, students approved a resolution last week that calls for equal disciplinary treatment of students caught with alcohol or marijuana in residence halls.

Purdue’s dorms have a “zero tolerance” policy for all illegal drugs, including marijuana. The same is not true, however, for alcohol violations. In 2007-8, Purdue’s dorms handled 691 alcohol-related incidents, just 18 of which resulted in loss of housing, according to university officials. In contrast, 51 of the 62 students involved in drug-related incidents were booted from their dorms over the course of the same year. The data provided by Purdue do not specify which drugs were involved in the incidents, but marijuana is among the more prevalent drugs on college campuses.

Purdue made no changes:

“The bottom line is that it’s not legal. Drinking underage is not legal, and any use of illegal drugs is illegal,” [Jeanne Norberg, a university spokeswoman] said. “We are a state institution; we uphold the state law.”

But with the disparities of on-campus punishment, the university is going beyond upholding the law and making a judgment about whether marijuana use is worse than underage drinking or drinking to excess, Tvert said. In so doing, universities are giving a signal to students that they’re less likely to be punished for using alcohol — a drug that has a history of causing greater problems on college campuses than marijuana, he said.

Andrew Sullivan points to a serious study that backs the students’ position. See also Sullivan’s ongoing Cannabis Closet series.  And Nate Silver on Why Marijuana Legalization is Gaining Momentum.