The Supervillains from Orlando, FL

So I was partying at the University of Central Florida chapter leader’s home (motto: Fo’ Shizzle, Welcome to Our Hizzle) when a future senator and first Puerto Rican president (long story) named Oscar asked me if I’d ever heard of the Supervillains.

“You mean like Lex Luthor and Dr. Doom?” I responded.  No, he meant a certain pop-ska band from the Orlando area.  No, I’d never heard of them, which caused Oscar and his buddy to begin crooning “Resin… you stick to my fingers…”.  Soon they were hooking up an iPod to some speakers and playing for me the Supervillains.

I liked it!  Oscar put a couple of their albums on a NORML thumbdrive for me and I promised I would play them on the Stash.  You can find out more about them at http://myspace.com/therealsupervillains.

Enjoy my new favorite band from Orlando (OK, the only band I know from Orlando), the Supervillains with “Resin”.

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ORLANDO — The University of Central Florida Golden Rule Review Committee voted today on a new campus policy that would equalize school punishments for student alcohol and marijuana use. The vote resulted in a tie (3-3 — one voting member left early), with the opponents’ primary concern being a desire to spend more time considering the policy. The proposal will be brought up for consideration again early next semester.

“We are very glad to see UCF giving such strong consideration to this proposal to address dangerous student drinking,” said Brendon Rivard, the spokesman for the UCF chapter of NORML. “We look forward to meeting with the committee members and addressing any further concerns they might have. Given such strong student support for this measure, we hope to see it become policy early next semester. It makes no sense for the university to be steering students toward alcohol — which contributes to so many serious problems — and away from a much safer substance: marijuana.”

The proposed policy establishes equal campus punishments for student alcohol and marijuana use, so that the use of alcohol — which is far more dangerous and causes far more problems than marijuana use — is no longer a more acceptable form of intoxication under campus policy. If the committee approves the new policy next semester, it will be sent to the UCF administration for final approval and implementation.

The policy is based on the recommendations of a task force of student leaders and administrators, which formed after a large majority of the student body approved a campus referendum on equalizing marijuana and alcohol punishments. Approximately 57 percent of student voters approved the measure, which was sponsored by the UCF chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). The referendum received endorsements from the campus newspaper and both student body government presidential tickets, and it has since received endorsements from a variety of other student groups.

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Two men whose views couldn’t be more different will face off and test their knowledge in a debate to prove once and for all the logic behind decriminalizing and legalizing such a benign substance.

Kris Krane is the Executive Director of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy and former Associate Director of NORML. Mr. Krane graduated magna cum laude from American University in May 2000 with an honors degree in political science, culminating with an honors thesis entitled “The War on Drugs: A Case Study in the Escalation of Failed Moral Policy.”

Kris Krane has been quoted in national newspapers including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Roll Call, USA Today, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He has also been a featured guest on television news programs including Fox News Weekend Live and Today in New York, and has been featured on National Public Radio, Court TV Radio, Wisconsin Public Radio, and The WWRL Morning Show with Armstrong Williams.

Kevin A. Sabet, Ph.D. is a MHRA/NDRI postdoctoral fellow and a policy consultant in private practice based in New York, NY. He recently graduated from the University of Oxford as a Marshall Scholar and a Warr-Goodman prize recipient. He regularly contributes to the media and worldwide governments on various issues of drug policy and served as the Senior Speechwriter at the Office of National Drug Control Policy under Gen. Barry McCaffrey (2000). He is also the founder of Students Taking Action Not Drugs (STAND).

The debate will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Student Union, Room 316 at the University of Central Florida [in Orlando] on [Wednesday,] September 24th, 2008. It is co-hosted by the Campus Activities Board (CAB).

Recently, NORML@UCF was awarded as one of the top counterculture schools in America, making the top 10 for the second time in history.

Additionally, NORML@UCF was awarded the 2008 Student Activist Award for its efforts to inform citizens about the detrimental laws regarding marijuana.

“UCF named among top five universities nationwide for most marijuana activism”

If you’d like more information about this event, or to schedule an interview with James McIntyre, please contact him at 772-633-9494 or send an email to publicrelations@normlucf.com

The students at UCF have been very active in marijuana reform and are one of the best campus chapters of NORML in the country.  I got to meet a few at the 2006 and 2007 NORML Conferences as well as Seattle Hempfest.  If college students from Florida can find a way to make it to the West Coast at least three times in three years, you can find a way to make it to NORML CON 2008.  Meeting the activists in the movement and making those networking connections is the best way to build our power.  That 2006 NORML CON led to me meeting Allen St. Pierre, who then introduced me to Chris Goldstein, who then turned the reins of this podcast over to me in 2008.

It’s not what you know… it’s who you know!  If you’re a student, contact us at norml.org and we’ll help you set up your own college campus chapter.  And if you want to host a “heads vs. feds” style debate, I’ll be glad to travel to your campus and represent us “heads”.

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• UCF NORML gets tie vote in cannabis=alcohol student initiative (0)
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