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InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
Reefer madness goes national
    #6514492 - 01/30/07 09:47 PM (17 years, 1 month ago)

Reefer madness goes national
January 30, 2007 - coloradodaily.com

When pro-marijuana referendums passed at Colorado's two biggest campuses, Tazewell Jones took notice.

The freshman at American University in Washington, D.C. said he was inspired by the examples set by students at CU-Boulder and Colorado State University in 2005 when they approved a campus referendum saying the penalty for pot should be equal to the penalty for alcohol.

Now Jones is spearheading a similar campaign at his East Coast college.

Guiding him is Denver-based Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), a tiny local group whose influence in the past two years has expanded far past Colorado's borders.

“When SAFER worked in Denver on the ballot initiatives there, they gained a lot of national attention - that was my first introduction to them,” Jones said. “When I learned of SAFER's idea to get ballot initiatives nationwide, I became especially interested.”

SAFER became a major player in Colorado's drug dialogue when it aided CU and CSU students in passing “Equalization Initiatives” only six months after both schools saw a student die from the effects of binge drinking.

The symbolic, nonbinding referendums argue that marijuana doesn't kill, so penalties for making the “safer” choice shouldn't be stricter than penalties for drinking.

The following year, SAFER helped students pass similar resolutions at the University of Maryland, Florida State University and the University of Texas at Austin.

Seeing Southern schools pass equalization measures inspired Ryan Denham, a former architecture major at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville.

;That just put something in my head that we could pass something on campus,” said Denham. He convinced U-ARK's student government to pass a resolution calling for Arkansas to let students apply for state financial aid even if they're ineligible for federal financial aid - a major step in combating the drug war, he says, because anyone convicted of a marijuana offense is ineligible for federal financial aid.

A similar resolution will be considered by students at CSU this year, said SAFER Executive Director Mason Tvert.

Denham is also collecting signatures to place SAFER's “equalization initiative” on U-ARK's ballot. In November, he ran a successful campaign to decriminalize marijuana in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. And last May, he gathered 200 people to march through downtown Fayetteville as part of the worldwide “Million Marijuana March.”

The turnout, he said, “is pretty good for this Bible-belt area.”

This year SAFER's focus is on schools in the Midwest and East. Tvert said he's working with students on equalization campaigns at Ohio State University, Purdue University in Indiana, and two colleges in Washington D.C. - George Washington University and American University.

Its nationwide reach is all the more incredible because it's a low-budget organization with only two staff members.

Across the nation, voters approve these ballot initiatives at about the same rate.

The CU-Boulder referendum passed with 68 percent of the vote. The UT-Austin measure passed with 64 percent, according to the Dallas Morning News. The U-Md resolution passed with “two-thirds,” said the Washington Post. The citywide Eureka Springs, Ark. initiative passed with 63 percent, said Denham - surpassing SAFER's performance in its hometown of Denver, which decriminalized marijuana with only 54 percent of the vote.

Ohio State sophomore Zach Germaniuk started working with SAFER on passing an “equalization petition” last spring. The group gives him “moral support,” he said, including advice on how to draft petitions and logistically organize a campus-wide campaign.

Germaniuk noted the important position of Ohio, a decisive swing state whose voters ousted several incumbents in the 2006 mid-term elections.

A pro-pot referendum passed by Ohio's largest campus - made of 50,000 students - will send a strong message to the state's electorate, Germaniuk said.

“This will have a huge impact which will send ripple effects all the way through the community,” Germaniuk said.

* See S.A.F.E.R.

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Offlineoppression
potsmokeshroompopngunnut
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Registered: 01/18/07
Posts: 100
Loc: south of the mason dixion...
Last seen: 10 years, 3 months
Re: Reefer madness goes national [Re: veggie]
    #6514842 - 01/30/07 11:05 PM (17 years, 1 month ago)

Man this is great news!


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‘Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.’"

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Offlinededjam
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Registered: 12/14/05
Posts: 2,139
Loc: Moralton, Statesota
Last seen: 12 years, 10 months
Re: Reefer madness goes national [Re: oppression]
    #6515377 - 01/31/07 06:58 AM (17 years, 1 month ago)

Making a difference by using the same legal system they have used to fuck us over. Thats gotta piss off the big boys on capitol hill. Love to hear it!

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Offlineelaspeinreason
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Registered: 07/31/05
Posts: 1,029
Loc: fairfax virginia
Last seen: 11 years, 3 months
Re: Reefer madness goes national [Re: oppression]
    #6515395 - 01/31/07 07:11 AM (17 years, 1 month ago)

hooray.


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Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one

Diploid said:
What's with proclaiming freedom by abridging freedom? That makes no sense.

Edited by elaspeinreason (01/31/07 07:12 AM)

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