(The Oregonian – “Seeing through the smoke” editorial) It’s about time someone took action on the increasing number of medical marijuana dispensaries. The dispensaries are ignoring both the law and the will of Oregonians, who voted in November to defeat Measure 74, which would have legalized state-regulated dispensaries.

Of course, technical violations of the law may not really be the issue here. The original medical marijuana law was full of flaws. Lawmakers who are inclined to try to fix it could start with age restrictions on who can hold a card. Right now, anyone, including teenagers, can apply. A study done by Oregon Partnership found, for example, that 35 percent of students at Wilson High School and 46 percent at Marshall High School knew someone with a card.

Holton has done a good job in pointing to the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries, which may help nip it in the bud, so to speak. But, if Oregon is to continue allowing medical marijuana, then, at least, legislators must work harder to tighten up the rules.

Shame on the Oregonian for parroting the baseless “What About the Children?!?” scare tactic of US Attorney Holton and the majority of Oregon law enforcement. “35 percent of students at Wilson High School and 46 percent at Marshall High School knew someone with a card.” Knew a fellow student or knew someone with an OMMP card? A friend’s parent? A local store clerk? Their own parent? Their parent’s friends? The Oregonian cleverly places the stat in the context of implying high schools are overrun with cardholding minor students.

Unlike the Oregonian editorial board, I check sources (I work for NORML: I have to.) The survey they refer to was addressed at a Marshall High community town hall meeting. The poll was conducted by students as part of a project called “SMASH” in a “confidential, random, peer-to-peer” survey – meaning one high school kid asking another high school kid. We have no control group, no control for confounding variables, not even a mention of the survey size or the randomness of those polled (maybe the SMASH kids are more likely to “randomly” speak to their friend, for instance, or stood in the hall and talked to anyone passing by who would answer.)

But besides all the methodological issues arising from trusting the polling data of high school kids talking to their friends, it’s important to note what their survey actually said:

PERCEPTION: Students surveyed believed that 8 out of 10 students smoke marijuana

REALITY: 7 out of 10 students DO NOT smoke marijuana

Kids surveyed thought 77.3% of others were smoking marijuana.  76.07% of kids never smoked marijuana, another 12.27% smoked it once or twice a month.  So, kids think 3 out of 4 other kids smoke pot when 3 out of 4 kids actually don’t.  Where, oh, where could the kids be getting the message that youth cannabis smoking is out of control, when, in fact, Oregon’s 12th grade monthly cannabis use rates have declined 14% (before | after) since 1999, when medical marijuana got underway in Oregon.

One could argue that when authority figures are telling kids youth pot smoking is rampant, kids believe “everyone’s doing it” and that peer pressure makes them more likely to want to try it.

REALITY: Almost 1 in 2 students surveyed knows someone who has a medical marijuana card.

Do you know anyone who is prescribed* medical marijuana? 46.63% YES

*Nobody is prescribed medical marijuana; it is “recommended”. Federal prohibition forbids “prescription” of marijuana.

Another REALITY? Of the 40,000 registered medical marijuana patients in Oregon, less than fifty are under the age of 18. That’s one-eighth of one percent of all patients in Oregon. I’ve met one minor on the program in all my six years working with patients in Oregon – a 16-year-old young man with a painful congenital disorder accompanied by his very clean-cut white-bread middle-class non-pot-smoking parents who only allow him to use medicated edibles; no smoking. There simply is no crisis of youth marijuana smoking in Oregon and certainly not one that can be attributed to a medical marijuana program with very strict requirements for qualification.

If the Oregonian is really concerned about the children, these existing cannabis clubs provide much more protection than the unregulated market they and US Attorney Holton seem to be advocating. I’ve visited a number of these clubs and each one – despite me being very well-known to them as a marijuana advocate at the national level – required that I show my Oregon ID and valid medical marijuana program card prior to entry.

US Attorney Holton and 33/34 county D.A.’s would like to you to believe that teens can walk into the state OMMP, complain about a headache, get an OMMP card, walk into a cannabis club and walk out with a pound and a half of marijuana. The truth is that the card is much more difficult to get here and the over 3,000 doctors who have recommended cannabis as medicine in Oregon are especially stringent in reviewing the records of minors for medical marijuana qualification.

Furthermore, these clubs pull the patient community away from the unregulated market’s back alleys, parking lots, and apartment living rooms. There is nothing that a prohibition profiteer hates more than regulated legal competition. Legality removes the prohibition risk tariff, drives down prices, and improves access and quality for patients. It creates jobs in the community, controls the distribution of cannabis far better than prohibition, contributes local tax revenue, and protects patients from unscrupulous growers taking advantage of their desperate need for medicine they can’t just buy at Walgreen’s or CVS.

If the Oregon county D.A.s outside of Multnomah are lacking for better things to do than harass sick and disabled adults trying to be legal consumers in a state with no legal retailers, perhaps they could work on the 72.4% of sex crimes and 80.4% of property crimes that didn’t lead to an arrest in 2009 in Oregon.

Russ Belville, OMMP Caregiver
Outreach Coordinator & Talk Radio Host
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
Portland, Oregon

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Hemp Headlines

1. Washington State Senator pulls medical marijuana dispensary bill
2. California GOP Chairman comes out against TaxCannabis 2010 with scaremongering about “dope” and “drugs”
3. National Alcohol Awareness leads students to call for right to use marijuana; Univ. of Maryland NORML featured in Washington Post piece.

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NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano

Why Students Hold The Key To Ending Marijuana Prohibition

By Paul Armentano

Deputy Director

NORML | NORML Foundation

Presented:

March 12, 2010

SSDP 11th Annual Conference

San Francisco, CA

My name is Paul Armentano and I’m the Deputy Director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and I’m the co-author of the book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? Max, Amber, Stacia and the many good folks at SSDP invited me to come here today to talk to you about why students have a vital role to play in ending marijuana prohibition.

The reasons are several, but the first ought to be obvious: self-preservation.

Since 1965 law enforcement in this country have arrested over 20 million people for marijuana offenses.  But when you take a closer look at who is actually arrested you find that, for the most part, it isn’t the folks sitting on this panel who are getting busted; it’s all of you sitting out there – it’s young people.

In short – the so-called ‘war’ on marijuana is really a war on youth.

According to a 2005 study commissioned by the NORML Foundation, 74 percent of the 800,000 or so Americans arrested for pot offenses each year are under age 30, and one out of four are age 18 or younger.  That’s nearly half a million young people at risk of losing their school loans, or being saddled with a lifelong criminal record at a time when they are just entering the workforce.   We’re talking about an entire generation – and that’s guys out there — that has been alienated to believe that the police and their civic leaders are instruments of their oppression rather than their protection.

And the sad fact is: you’re right!

The question is: What are you going to do about it?

If we’re going to finally end this 70+ year failed public policy known as marijuana prohibition, then we need students to play a lead role.  Obviously those of you in this room have already taken a critical first step in leading this charge by being a part of  SSDP and by attending this conference.  But there’s a lot more to be done and there’s a lot more that you can do.

I believe that it was Ghandi who said that those who are oppressed must stand up and be a part of there own liberation, and marijuana prohibition is no different.  Look around you because it’s you all who will ultimately bring about an end to prohibition.

And here’s how you start the process, and it’s really, really simple suggestion. Start talking to others about the need to end marijuana prohibition. Start talking about how this policy disproportionately and adversely impacts youth. Start talking about how this policy limits young people’s opportunities at economic and academic success, and has repercussions that adversely affect people for the rest of their lives.

Start talking about how prohibition endangers young people’s health and safety because it enables teens to have easier access to pot than to legal, age-restricted intoxicants like alcohol and tobacco.  Talk about how prohibition forces young people to interact and befriend pushers of other illegal, more dangerous drugs.  Talk about how prohibition compels young people dismiss the educational messages they receive about the health risks posed by the use of ‘hard drugs’ and prescription pharmaceuticals because they say: “If they lied to me about pot, why wouldn’t they be lying to me about everything else too.”

Most importantly, talk about how criminal prohibition is far more likely to result in having all of you sitting in this room struggling to get over a lifelong criminal conviction than it is in any way going to discourage you or your friends  from trying pot.

And when I say ‘talk about it,’ that’s exactly what I mean – TALK.  But here’s the thing: be aware of who you are talking to.  Talk to those who know you – your family, your friends, your parents, your neighbors, your professors, your faculty advisors. These are the people who you have built in credibility with.  These are the people who are most likely to share and act upon your concerns because they care about you.  They care about what you think, and they actually give a shit about what happens to you.

(You know it’s funny, so often I hear activists talk about how they want to spread the word by going out on some street-corner and handing out leaflets to strangers. Or they want to engage in debates with some paid prohibitionist, as if by providing he or she with the facts about marijuana will somehow change his or her position. Or they want to post messages on some anti-drug website. Big deal. Talking to strangers is easy – it’s talking to people you know that’s hard. But it’s talking to people you know that is ultimately going to make a difference.)

So after your done talking about the evils of the drug war with your friends, family, and faculty – and encouraging them to begin engaging in this conversation with their friends as well – then it’s time to move the discussion to those who can shape public opinion and policy: the editors at your school paper, the leaders in your student government, your city council, your mayor, you state elected officials.  Talk to these folks, and keep talking to these folks.  And if they won’t listen to you – then become one of them.  Join the school paper; run for student government; run for city council. If not you, then who?

Here’s something else I want you to do to help bring about an end to marijuana prohibition. There’s something I want you all to say when you are engaging in your outreach efforts, and that is this: NOT IN MY NAME.

You know, when those who support marijuana prohibition are forced to defend it, they do so by saying that it’s all about you – it’s all about protecting and providing for the best interest of young people.  You know, sort of like “we have to destroy the village in order to to save it.”

It’s time for all of you in this room to stop being the scapegoats for the abuses and the excesses of drug war. It’s time to say – enough! We don’t want your criminal policies; we never asked for your criminal policies; and we’re tired of having our good names be used to support your failed drug war.  The war on marijuana isn’t saving us; it’s harming us – and we demand that it comes to end before it fucks over another generations the same way it’s fucked over ours.

Okay, so that’s the easy part – here’s the hard part.  If students – and I’m talking about you guys here, and I’m also talking about all of your friends and colleagues who aren’t here – are ultimately going to be the game-changers in this battle, this fight that all of us sitting up here have been waging for far too long already, then we need for you guys to take a pledge.  Now I know there’s probably nobody in this room right now who is straight-edge, but within that community there’s a saying. It goes: “True till death, not till college.’ The idea behind that saying is that it’s really easy to pledge to be abstinent when you’re young, but that it gets harder and harder as you get holder.

Well, believe it or not, the opposite applies too.

You know, I knew lots of people who delved into marijuana activism while they were in college, but after college things suddenly changed.  “Well you know, I’d love to be active but now I’m worried that my boyfriend/girlfriend/parents won’t approve. Well, I’d love to join NORML but I’m worried that my employer might find out. I’d love to be active in a NORML chapter but I just don’t have the free time like I used to have. Well, I’d love to fight to end marijuana prohibition but now that I’ve graduated college I have to pay back my school loans and I have to join some scum-sucking corporate conglomerate, put on a suit and tie, and never so much as mention marijuana law reform ever again.”

Well, let me tell you – the reality has changed, and the time for excuses – and believe me, I’ve heard them all – is over.

When I graduated college in 1994 there was no SSDP; there was no ASA. There barely was an MPP – which at the time was Rob Kampia and Chuck Thomas operating out of their apartment. There was the DPA – with one office a handful of employees.  There was no LEAP, no SAFER; no frankly there was no professional movement. Since then the landscape has changed monumentally.

Today, there are now dozens of organizations working on drug policy reform, and with that, there are now dozens of job opportunities for you to get involved and stay involved in marijuana law reform after you graduate.  So I present you with a challenge: You really want to end the drug war? Consider making drug policy your career choice.  You can start right now by applying for an internship at NORML or a fellowship at SSDP.  Many of this movement’s current leaders started out this way, Kris Krane, Mason Tvert, Tom Angel, Stacia Cosner, Micah Daigle, to name a few.  They did it, and you can too.

Finally, even if you don’t wish to pursue marijuana law reform as a career, I encourage you to stay active in this movement. Between the Internet, podcasts, list-servs, social networking sites like Facebook, you now have access to unparalleled quantities of drug-law reform information in real time.  Hell, just this past week NORML launched its own Iphone app.

In other words, it is now easier than ever to stay plugged in to your networks and continue to educate yourself and your friends about drug policy reform. Check out NORML’s daily podcast, the Audio Stash, for the latest breaking news, or check out NORML or MPP’s capwiz page to instantly learn about upcoming state and federal votes regarding legislation that affects us all. And use what you learn to continue to move this conversation forward. The bottom line: All of you in this room have the power to change these laws, and today you have an unprecedented opportunity to do so. So get out there and do it!

I know that it’s probably not worth my time to tackle an anti-marijuana piece written by a student at Citrus (Community) College in Glendora, California, especially when it appears on a website that claims it is “a first ammendment publication”, but damn, it’s like catnip for me and I cannot resist…

My opposition to the legalization of marijuana for recreational use is not about politics, proven facts, or calculated data. It is about morals.

The honesty is actually quite refreshing.  He then goes on to tell us how he was educated by D.A.R.E.

[N]arcotics, tobacco, and alcohol are addictive and harmful substances and I do not believe that one can argue logically against that.

So far so good.  I don’t think he realizes that cannabis is not a narcotic, but technically, I cannot disagree with this statement.

Marijuana harms the brain and impairs judgment, memory, and coherency.

Interesting how just four lines into his morality essay, he’s citing what he believes to be proven facts.  Aside from the fact he’s wrong – marijuana use does not harm the brain or cognition – didn’t he tell us his opposition had nothing to do with proven facts?

Teaching young children that marijuana is harmful and that they should stay away from it, and then turning around and legalizing it is the worst example that we can set for the future citizens and leaders of our nation and the world.

We teach young children that strangers are harmful and they should stay away from them… should we make strangers illegal?  Alcohol and tobacco are illegal for young children, but we don’t lock up adults who choose to consume them.

Next our writer gets to his moral argument, which essentially boils down to the notion that legalizing marijuana is immoral because using marijuana is immoral because the people who use marijuana have low morals.  See, drugs r bad, mmmkay, and that’s why they’re illegal, mmmkay, and people who do illegal things are bad, and those bad people take drugs, so drugs r bad, mmmkay?

Morals prevent us from allowing fanatical and harmful practices to becoming acceptable or non-punishable under law; practices such as molestation, abortion, slavery, underage drinking, child abuse, communism, and torture.

Communism?  Really?  And isn’t abortion legal and non-punishable under law?  As for the rest, you can show me a victim who has been harmed.  The essential moralities here are “don’t harm others” and “protect the young”.  Nobody wants kids toking and my toking isn’t harming others.

While legalizing marijuana may not be on the same level as murder or sexual crimes, that does not lessen the wrongfulness or the immorality of the issue.

So, while slowly torture-murdering your enslaved drunk underaged Communist cheerleader sister and screwing her corpse isn’t as drastic as smoking a joint, they are equally wrong and immoral?  What’s your positions on jaywalking vs. terrorism?

Proponents of legalizing marijuana for recreational use argue that it could generate enormous amounts of revenue — but at what cost? When did selling morals for money become an acceptable practice, especially for Americans?

Probably about two minutes after they take the Oath of Office.

Allowing such a disregard for morals will be the downfall of our nation. I assure you that unfathomed repercussions would occur as a result of legalizing marijuana.

For example, community college students might have to compete with better writers who smoke pot but can’t currently get student aid.  But thanks for reminding me about The Unfathomed Repercussions, they were one of my favorite British psychedelic rock bands of the 1970s.

I’m only tearing this apart because lately I’ve been thinking that we need to be more pro-marijuana.  Yes, prohibition sucks, yes, marijuana is safer or less harmful, but dammit, marijuana is good.  It is a positive thing!  Growing hemp again would be good.  Using marijuana as medicine is good.  Even recreational use of marijuana is good.

This morality argument has always been the crux of prohibition.  The gateway theory: marijuana’s immoral because it will lead you to drugs that are more immoral.  Amotivation: marijuana’s immoral because it will make you unproductive and unsuccessful, ultimate immorality in a capitalist system.  Every reefer madness back to the “darkies looking at white women” and “degenerate Spanish races and their loco weed” has to do with a dominant society awash in alcohol and tobacco casting moral aspersions on users of cannabis.

So as it begins to look like there’s a strong chance marijuana may be legalized, we need to be sure we also win in the court of public opinion.  I wouldn’t mind marijuana being legal like cigarettes, but I surely don’t want it to be demonized like cigarettes.  Think of how we portray smoking as a dirty nasty habit and smokers as weak smelly addicts forced to huddle outside in the wind and cold to get a fix.  Then think of how we portray drinking as a fun social activity and drinkers as adventurous sexy young adults who play touch football outside in the sun while enjoying a cold brew.

Both are legal drugs.  Let’s make sure we frame the narrative around the legalization of the third-most popular drug so that we get the fun Super Bowl commercials and not the creepy Truth commercials.

(The Daily Titan) When Eden Gonzalez, 21, first arrived at California State University Monterey Bay, she wanted to take her doctor-prescribed medication. Her resident adviser said no. The reason? Her medicine was marijuana.

“The biggest problem we were having at CSUMB was the issue with Residential Life,” Gonzalez said. “Campus police were actually pretty cool and I’ve had friends whose med-stash was returned after showing medical proof. But with Res-Life, you can have your medical marijuana, but you can’t smoke it, which is the problem.”

Because of the dorm rules, Gonzalez had to either give up marijuana or her convenience of living on campus. She eventually moved out of the dorms and into an off-campus apartment nearby. Gonzalez now serves as the executive director of CSUMB’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Gonzalez is one of many students trying to figure out how state, federal and university law applies to the use of medical marijuana.

CSUF police continue to stop students from smoking marijuana,”It’s still a federal offense,” [Sergeant Nigel Williams of CSUF police department] said.

CSUF police Lt. Don Landers concurred with Williams, “it is in violation of campus policy and if students bring marijuana with or without a prescription it will still be confiscated,” Landers said.

CSUF police officers would probably not arrest a medical marijuana user. “However the individual will be subject to a judicial citation and referral to the judicial affairs officer on campus,” Landers said.

When asked why it would be a problem at all, Landers answered, “It is against federal law and the university receives federal funding, not just state.”

Isn’t nice to know the fine college cops of the California State University system have been entrusted to enforce federal law?

Oh, wait, they aren’t charged with enforcing federal law.  See, this case called City of Garden Grove v. Kha was denied review by both the California and United States Supreme Courts, which let stand the lower court ruling, which, in a nutshell, said “it is not the job of the local police to enforce the federal drug laws.”

Now if it is a violation of campus policy, then students, please, organize to change these campus policies!  If you do not have a NORML chapter on your campus fighting to protect on-campus medical rights, then contact me at stash@norml.org and I’ll help you get started.

(Santa Barbara Noozhawk) Santa Barbara residents showed up in force once again for an Ordinance Committee meeting Tuesday regarding the city’s marijuana dispensaries.

During 90 minutes of public comment, residents discussed ideas for revising the city ordinance, as well as opinions on the existence of dispensaries in Santa Barbara.

Misusing marijuana is a big concern among residents, but there isn’t much information available on how big a role dispensaries play in recreational and underage marijuana use.

I doubt dispensaries have more of a role in underage consumption than do the teenage marijuana dealers in every school in the country.  The dispensaries at least require a check for state ID.  As for the recreational use, the dispensaries require a doctor’s recommendation, so that point needs to be taken up with doctors, not dispensaries that are following the law.

Besides, just what the hell is “misuse of marijuana” anyway?  If you have a headache and you smoke pot and you feel good, is that medicinal or recreational?  Now let’s say you don’t have a headache and you just smoke pot to feel good, is that misuse?    Somehow, it is only OK to smoke pot to feel good if you felt bad before smoking it?  Why do we have such a puritanical need to make sure people aren’t experiencing joy without first feeling pain?

The use of medicinal marijuana isn’t recognized in the public school system, and police have both formally and informally cited many students for possession or use on campus, according to Armando Martel of the Santa Barbara Police Department.

The Santa Barbara School Districts have reported 178 suspensions from controlled substances, most from marijuana.

Superintendent Brian Sarvis told the committee Tuesday that one student told him the substance was so easy to get that it may as well be in the school vending machines, adding that Martel doesn’t think those cases have been traced back to dispensaries.

Before dispensaries, around 85% of high school seniors say marijuana is easy or fairly easy to get.  Most can get it within the day, many within the hour.  After the dispensaries, around 85% of high school seniors still say it is easy to acquire.  Medical marijuana has nothing to do with teen access; teen access is rampant because of marijuana prohibition.

David Hughes spoke on behalf of the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara and said the group requests a prohibition of dispensaries near residential zones and special-needs facilities, such as sober-living complexes.

State law bans smoking medical marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school, recreation center or youth center. Although dispensaries don’t allow smoking or consuming on-site, there’s an anomaly in enforcement if the locations are within that 1,000-foot boundary — as many are, he said.

Residents also have expressed concern with dispensaries near residential areas, especially the pending dispensary at Paseo Chapala.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve read about the public’s concern about marijuana dispensaries in their neighborhoods, especially around schools. What amuses me is that the public seems so much less concerned about liquor stores in these same areas. The following maps show you bits of Santa Barbara, California. I’ve mapped out the location of schools and given you a 1000′ radius from them so you can see how many liquor stores and pharmacies are within that area.  I mapped 34 liquor stores in my Googling, only the ones with Santa Barbara addresses, and I decided not to show grocery stores, where in California you can buy many spirits that would only be in liquor stores in other states.

So I’m able to quickly find ten schools or pre-schools for underaged children where the sales of intoxicating liquors and/or controlled substances are sold to adults within 1000 feet of that school, drugs that can easily injure and kill when used irresponsibly, but I’m supposed to be frightened if a provider of a non-toxic herb sells to adults within 1000 feet of those sale schools?

Earlier this year, the House Education & Labor Committee passed a student aid bill with language to scale back Rep. Mark Souder’s infamous financial aid/drug conviction law (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/595/higher_education_act_HEA_drug_provision_vote). The new version of the law would only count sales convictions — a great step forward, though we still want full repeal. More than 200,000 students already have lost aid for college because of drug convictions.

Tomorrow, we’re told, Rep. Souder will offer an amendment on the floor of the House of Representatives, seeking to have this good language stripped from the final version of the bill. PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE AND ASK THAT HE OR SHE VOTE NO ON SOUDER’S AMENDMENT TO THE STUDENT AID BILL. Students should not lose access to college because of drug possession convictions! The bill is called SAFRA, the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, H.R. 3221.

To reach your Representative (or find out who your Rep is), call the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. When the receptionist in your representative’s office answers the phone, politely say something like the following: “My name is _____ and I’d like Rep. ___ to vote against Rep. Souder’s amendment to the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which would deny educational opportunities to students with minor drug possession convictions. Blocking access to education causes more drug problems and hurts the economy. Thank you.”

When you’re done, please forward this alert to all your friends, and please post it to sites like Facebook and Twitter too. Visit http://www.raiseyourvoice.com for further information on this issue and the hundreds of organizations that support repeal.

WASHINGTON (McClatchy) — College students convicted of illegal drug possession could get federal financial aid for the first time in more than a decade under legislation aimed at overhauling the student loan system.

The bill, which a House of Representatives committee approved recently and which the full House probably will consider after its August recess, says that those convicted of selling illegal drugs still would be barred from receiving federal financial aid.

However, students convicted of possession would be able to get loans, grants and work-study assistance.

The new provision is part of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, which passed the House Education and Labor Committee on July 21. It would increase the maximum Pell Grant, the primary federal need-based scholarship, and end the private sector’s role in student loans. Instead, the government would be the sole provider of student loans.

As of 2006, nearly 200,000 students who’d been convicted of drug charges — about 1 percent of students across the country — had been denied student aid under the law.

Under current law, students convicted of possessing illegal drugs are ineligible for federal aid for one year for first offenses, two years for second offenses and forever for third offenses. Those convicted of selling are barred for two years for first offenses and forever for second offenses.

In February 2006, Congress softened the law so that it would affect only those who were convicted of possessing or selling drugs while they were in college and receiving aid. Before, the law applied to prior convictions.

Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) was the author of the 1998 bill that revoked student aid from those caught with cannabis or drugs.  His reasoning was that if the government is going to pay for your college, the taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for subsidizing a student’s pot smoking or drug use.  Because if you’re really trying to insure that a young person doesn’t get deeply involved with drugs, the best way to do that is to make sure they can’t get an education, can’t get a good job, and are forced to deal marijuana or drugs to make ends meet.

Oddly enough, Rep. Souder doesn’t seem concerned at all about alcohol binge drinking on campuses that actually kill students.  He sponsored no legislation to make sure that students under age 21 lose their federal student aid if they are caught drinking, for instance.  Somehow the drug that leads to the most drop-outs, date rapes, and death of any drug on campus was miraculously spared from his morality crusade and the safest substance of the group – cannabis – was not.

Two pupils, aged 10 and 11, have been caught dealing marijuana at school. They were arrested after police said they were caught conducting a marijuana deal at school. The incident happened at Brookview Elementary in Warren, Indiana. A school spokesman said a student told school officials he saw a classmate sell a “marijuana-like substance” to another student.

“We are getting to a state of emergency,” said the Rev. Byron Alston, director of Save the Youth, an Eastside social services program.

“When you have elementary students selling dope in the school, we’ve got a serious problem.”

Police said 1.88 grams of marijuana was recovered, enough for one or two joints.

Both boys were suspended from school pending an investigation. They were taken to a juvenile detention center.

There is nothing funny about young children in possession with any substance whether it be alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana. It is with the most sincere intentions in mind when we tell our community leaders and politicians, “Tax and Regulate Marijuana Now!”

I asked my 15yr old, who is attending high school near our home in Texas, to share a list of items she can obtain within 24 hrs notice at her school (actually purchase inside her school) and here is what she wrote down off the top of her head:

Marijuana (indoor Chronic of any flavor), LSD, Magic Mushrooms, Mescaline, Cocaine (in any form), Meth, Ice, and Heroin (in any form)

Hot Wheels Eliminator

What the list doesn’t contain is Cigarettes or Alcohol. When asked about the availability of those, she stated, “They are harder to get because you have to go to a store, present an I.D., and undergo a certain amount of scrutiny.” You see, in the State of Texas, if the clerk behind the counter knowingly sells a minor something they shouldn’t, they will be charged with a crime.

Just imagine if Marijuana were behind a counter and completely removed from the criminal element. I think those kids who were caught selling pot might be trading hot wheels instead. That is the kind of world I would prefer to live in.

Allie Brody is a senior at Allentown High School in New Jersey and is one student that has had enough of being treated like a criminal.

I’ve written for my school newspaper, helped out with the production of musicals and even traveled abroad through a school club.

I was later inducted into the French Honor Society and the National Honor Society. Last year, I even co-founded the school’s first philosophy club.

But this year I am barred from participating in any of it. The irony is that my school has made me ineligible for any extracurricular activity for what they believe is my own self-interest. What did I do to deserve this punishment? I acted on my principles and stood up for fairness, privacy and dignity for me and my fellow students.

Student drug testing for extracurricular activity was pushed by the Bush administration as the panacea for high school drug use. Besides, what would convince more kids to stop doing drugs than to give them more time to use them. Allie Brody decided to take action.

Last year, when I found out my school board was considering a random student drug-testing policy, I immediately began organizing a student opposition group.

We worked to get the community involved: Students joined with parents and teachers, donning “Drug Testing Fails Our Youth” T-shirts as we filed into the school board meetings. We even brought a toxicologist to speak with the board about the unreliable nature of the drug-testing technology, the problem of non-professionals interpreting the test results, privacy and legal-liability issues and the general lack of research supporting student drug testing.

To us it seemed the school’s arguments in favor of testing were based more on emotional rhetoric than data. But, in the end, emotion carried the day, and random student drug testing went forward.

Allie didn’t simply accept the schools drug testing policy, and neither should you. Despite being terrible policy, it’s a total waste of taxpayers dollars. It’s an ineffective way to combat drug use and Allie does a great job pointing it out in the post.

In a policy statement, the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) cautions that student drug testing is unsupported by scientific research and carries inherent dangers. Drug-testing programs break down trust between students and administrators. They also carry the inherent danger of motivating some students to switch to drugs that will leave the system quickly, like alcohol, or drugs that not show up in the tests, such as inhalants and herbal concoctions.

I commend Allie Brody for both the principled stand on the drug testing issue and for the willingness to sacrifice for a closely held belief. We are lucky to have teens of Allie Brody’s character in America, and as a society we become stronger for it.

History is written by those who show up.  [And if I may add... Many of us have had the fantasy idea that if everyone just refused to take a pre-employment drug test, there would be no more pre-employment drug test, because there wouldn't be enough workforce. Alas, that is just a fantasy, because the reality of supporting families and mortgages comes into play.

But at a school... Imagine if every member of the football team or school band or drama club just outright refused to take the tests, what then? These are cases where the drug tester needs you much more than you need the drug tester. Imagine the headlines when John Hughes High School can't field a football team or a band or a play because kids finally had enough and stood up for privacy! They can't expel or suspend the kids for not going out for extracurriculars. The district will be paying the salary of a coach, a conductor, or a director with no students to teach. If everyone did it, there's no way to single out the "stoners" from the rest.

NORML does not at all support the use of marijuana by those under age eighteen except in medical circumstances as directed by a physician. But we do support the privacy rights of students not to be accused of being drug users for merely trying out for extracurriculars. C'mon, kids, show your elders a thing or two - just say no to school drug testing. --"R"R]