cannabisnews.com: Pro-MJ Group Looks to Reestablish at U. Maryland





Pro-MJ Group Looks to Reestablish at U. Maryland
Posted by FoM on November 10, 1999 at 09:17:14 PT
By Justin Paprocki, The Diamondback U. Maryland
Source: U-WIRE
There has only been one pro-marijuana group on the University of Maryland campus in at least 18 years, despite studies that show more than a quarter of college students support marijuana legalization. 
About 33 percent of college freshmen supported full marijuana legalization in 1998, according to studies compiled by the Center for Substance Abuse Research. The percentage was around 27 percent for the rest of the college and general populations. About 25 percent of college freshmen reported smoking it within the last thirty days of the survey, the report showed. TerpNORML, the campus branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, ran from 1996-1998 said Marsha Guenzler-Stevens, director of campus programs. She added a group needs eight members, a promise not to discriminate in membership and a spokesperson to be recognized as an official program. Luiz Gomes, a freshman sociology major, said he's trying to start up another group on campus, and said he is looking at either NORML or Students for Sensible Drug Policy. "I see a very pertinent need to end the war on drugs," he said. "A large university like Maryland can hold a lot of weight." In addition, the attention Gov. Parris N. Glendening gives campus could draw statewide attention for a pro-marijuana group, Gomes said. Gomes was one of about 200 students to attend the SSDP National Conference in Washington Nov. 5 and 6 to gather information about running a marijuana legalization program. The SSDP is a Washington-based organization with about 22 branches on college campuses, according to its website. Alex Anievas, a freshman political science major at Westminster Choir College in New Jersey, was also at the meeting. He said he is trying to start a group at Westminster, but he's having a hard time finding members -- not because students don't believe in the cause, but because students aren't vocal about it. He blamed the police for intimidating students and preventing them from being outspoken. "The police give you some crap sometimes ... for wearing [pro-marijuana] buttons and stuff," Anievas said. Andrew White, a freshman computer science major, said marijuana should be legalized but wouldn't join a group for other reasons. "It would be neat if it happened, but I don't care that much about [marijuana] since I don't smoke [it]," he said. Jimmy Bathurst, a freshman computer science major, said he wouldn't join a group either, but thinks marijuana should be legalized for medical purposes. "In the rare cases where it does work, it should be used," he said. Marijuana has been shown to reduce nausea and increase appetite in patients undergoing treatment for AIDS, according to studies done by the Institute of Medicine, an agency that sets health policy for the National Academy of Sciences. Masud Semple, a junior psychology major, also said he supports marijuana legalization. "If you tell someone not to do something, there's more of a chance that they will," he said. But Semple said he wouldn't join an organization either as his "beliefs in it aren't that strong." Frankie Lin, a sophomore business major and a NORML member at Virginia Tech, said its branch has about 200 members, about 60 students and the rest from off-campus. He said the group sets up information tables and conferences at Virginia Tech, writes letters to newspapers and lobbies members of Congress. The group is assisted by the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington-based advocacy group, Lin said. November 9, 1999(C) 1999 The Diamondback via U-WIRE Related Articles & Web Sites:NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/Students For Sensible Drug Policyhttp://www.ssdp.org/ Student Leaders Call For New Drug Laws - 11/09/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3608.shtml Governor Johnson Comes to Washington - 10/08/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3204.shtml 
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Comment #3 posted by mungojelly on November 10, 1999 at 19:57:53 PT:
"pro-marijuana"
Notice the repeated use of the term "pro-marijuana"! The prohibitionists use it the same way the extreme pro-lifers use the slur "pro-death." None of the organizations involved refer to themselves as "pro-marijuana." They are not promoting the use of marijuana -- that's the whole point: it's a personal choice whether to use marijuana, not a political issue. What they are doing is opposing arresting people for using marijuana. Not pro-marijuana, but anti-prohibition. 
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Comment #2 posted by observer on November 10, 1999 at 17:57:14 PT
We need someone to hate
> We need someone to hate. It helps focus political power. Ask any WWI or II vet if they like Japs or Germans. When you talk to them, as I do a lot in the hospital, their hatred is palpable, tangible.That's dead bang on. Scapegoatism. Politicians trump up a scapegoat for people to hate (thay have to hate *someone* after all: it is just a matter of who to hate), and then the propagandized scurry off to hate what they were told to hate.``For authoritarians a crucial benefit of scapegoating is that directing public anger toward scapegoats assures continuance of public anger, because problems creating fear and anger thereby remain unaddressed and will continue. In contrast to a confident and contented citizenry, a fearful and angry citizenry is more susceptible to authoritarian demands. Scapegoats are crucial for maintaining social turmoil by authoritarians. "It was the Jews who helped hold Hitler's system together -- on the practical as well as ideological level. The Jew allowed Hitler to ignore the long list of economic and social promises he had made to the SA, the lower party apparatus, and the lower middle classes. By steering the attention of these groups away from their more genuine grievances and toward the Jew, Hitler succeeded in blunting the edge of their revolutionary wrath, leaving him freer to persue his own nonideological goals of power in cooperation with groups whose influence he had once promised to weaken or even destroy. An ideological retreat on the Jewish issue in these circumstances was impossible. . . . The continued search for a solution to the Jewish problem allowed Hitler to maintain ideological contact with elements of his movement for whom National Socialism had done very little."4''(Richard L Miller, Drug Warriors and their Prey, 1996, pg.191-192)
book: Drug Warriors and their Prey
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Comment #1 posted by J Bills on November 10, 1999 at 15:45:55 PT:
The issue is'nt just marijuana but medical freedom
The issue of medical narijuana legalization will depend on the preservation of the democratic system that stems from those states that have in place the ability for a people's referendum or initiative. If there are enough states involved in passing laws enabling marijuana to be used as medicine, the federal government will eventually come around. As I see it, the voting record speaks for itself: 8-0. With that kind of record, one can extrapolate eventual victory in this issue. At least two, and possibly five or more states are voting on the issue in 2000. There must be laws in 36 states to form a constitutional amendment on an issue. Countries all around us are moving toward legalization and decriminalization. We are an island. Our largest trading partner, by far is Canada, and 83% of canadians are for medical marijuana: that's all but a moot issue. It will come to pass here eventually. Now, on the issue of NORML. If you think something like this will ever gain enough popularity with the masses of TV addicted sheeple, think again because one, marijuana is mainly smoked, and smoking anything is taboo for most people. I am a respiratory therapist. I am on the front lines of smoke. The second is the the stigma that it is a drug, it alters consciousness. Politically speaking, do you think mothers want something like that having a thriving organization? Fathers? But NORML is not aimed at children, but for responsible, private use by adults. People don't relize this, they just see pro-drugs and demure. People will always resist the normalization of the drug culture in this country. We need someone to hate. It helps focus political power. Ask any WWI or II vet if they like Japs or Germans. When you talk to them, as I do a lot in the hospital, their hatred is palpable, tangible. How do you think we won the war, by focusing love for our enemies? We are the enemy,and until we are not, NORML will stay on the sidelines of politics.
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