cannabisnews.com: Pot Fliers Flap Shrouded in Haze





Pot Fliers Flap Shrouded in Haze
Posted by CN Staff on September 28, 2006 at 07:51:04 PT
By Vimal Patel of the Rocky Mountain Collegian 
Source: Rocky Mountain Collegian
Colorado -- CSU reverses its decision to allow political fliers that depict a marijuana leaf. Exactly why is it in dispute? Backers of a pot-legalization measure were blocked from distributing fliers that depicted a marijuana leaf on campus before the ACLU got involved. "How many lawyers does it take to be able to exercise your free speech?" asked Seth Anthony, chair of the CSU Libertarian Party.
The CSULP and the CSU chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy wanted to distribute fliers advocating Amendment 44, which would legalize small amounts of marijuana for those 21 and older. The problem: CSU officials believed the flier could have gone beyond political speech and violated university policies. "It could have been viewed as promoting marijuana," said Dell Rae Moellenberg, a university spokeswoman, adding that the university has a code prohibiting material that advocates the use of drugs. But to Anthony, the flier does no such thing. "For it to be promoting marijuana, it would have to be encouraging use," he said. "There's nothing on this flier that encourages use of marijuana." The flier included information about the harmful effects of alcohol and the relative benignity of pot. In addition, the largest text on the flier read "Yes on 44" and behind that was the image of a marijuana leaf. The flier was shown to Housing and Dining Services on Monday. Moellenberg also added that, to her knowledge, there was a "misunderstanding somewhere along the lines." Anthony met with Mary Ellen Sinnwell, the director of Residence Life, about the flier on Monday. According to Moellenberg, the director told Anthony to make a couple changes to the flier to make it look more like "campaign material." She added that those changes were made, and therefore the fliers were approved for posting on Wednesday. Anthony, however, has a different version of the story. He calls the university explanation a flat-out "lie" and said no changes were made to the flier. "(Sinnwell) denied it on Monday and approved it on Wednesday," he said. "If we didn't have the backing of other groups, I really doubt they would have changed their minds." Mason Tvert, campaign director for the pro-legalization group SAFER, also unequivocally said that no changes were made to the flier. "This is the same flier that we've been dealing with all week," Tvert said.Sinnwell said that there were changes made to the flier - "in the layout and design" - but couldn't articulate precisely what changes were made.Taylor Pendergrass, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Colorado, said that since the university has decided to allow the fliers, he now considers the flap resolved. The lawyer saw the flier and said it fell under the realm of political speech. "This kind of speech is the purest form of political speech," he said. "We're always concerned about any restriction on free speech, but we're especially concerned about speech that has to do with a state ballot. That goes to the heart of the First Amendment." Tvert chimed in with his belief about why the university reversed its decision: "We caused a stink." Source: Rocky Mountain Collegian, The (CO Edu)Author: Vimal Patel of the Rocky Mountain Collegian Published: September 28, 2006Copyright: 2006 Rocky Mountain CollegianContact: news collegian.comWebsite: http://www.collegian.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:ACLUhttp://www.aclu.org/Safer Choicehttp://www.saferchoice.org/CSU: Pro-Pot Flyer Flap Overblownhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22209.shtmlTop Lawman Debates Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22208.shtmlPot Initiative Booster Tvert: Reach for Your Beerhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22207.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by ekim on September 28, 2006 at 08:57:06 PT
one mans story
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06.n1294.a07.html
Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
 Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 28 Sep 2006
Source: NOW Magazine (CN ON)
Copyright: 2006 NOW Communications Inc.
Contact: letters nowtoronto.com
Website: http://www.nowtoronto.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/282
Author: Doug HutchinsonSTRAIGHT DOPE FROM POT PROF It Was An Ugly Process, But In The End U Of T Provided My Own Ventilated Toking Room U of T philosophy professor Doug Hutchinson, who won the right this week to smoke pot during work hours for an undisclosed medical condition, goes public about his travails in an open letter released September 22 to U of T authorities, fellow philosophy professors and graduate students. Greetings, philosophers. I thought I should let you know that as of this week our university has a professor who smokes marijuana openly on campus, legally, and with workplace accommodation for his need to use this remedy. 
 
snipped
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Comment #2 posted by BGreen on September 28, 2006 at 08:50:52 PT
Oh, the fear produced by such a pretty leaf
I've never seen such a hysterical, overblown reaction to a picture or drawing of anything so innocent before in the United States. It's a LEAF off of a PLANT for crying out loud.I guess next they'll tell us we can't use any odd numbers from one to 13 because of the number of segments on the cannabis leaf, and then restrict the use of even numbers because of the occasional even numbered mutant leaf.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #1 posted by mayan on September 28, 2006 at 08:10:06 PT
A "Misunderstanding"
The university is simply trying to save face by saying the flyers were deemed acceptable only after they were changed. Bullsh*t! They were caught red-handed trying to stifle free speech and backed down before the ACLU could send in lawyers. To hell with these fascists. It's time to call each and every single one of them out before we are in the middle of WWIII and we have no f*cking rights left!!!
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