Group urges colleges to relax penalties against smoking pot

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Hey dude, can we talk?

Marijuana advocates who say pot is safer than alcohol want colleges to wade into a hazy debate over whether schools’ tough pot penalties are actually worsening their drinking woes.

They argue that stiff punishments for being caught in a campus dorm with pot steer students to booze and add to binge drinking, drunken brawls and other booze-soaked troubles.

A Denver-based group, Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, has helped students at 13 colleges pass measures calling on their schools to set pot penalties no worse than those faced by underage students caught drinking or other alcohol violations. So far, no schools have changed their pot penalties, he said.

SAFER calls its nonbinding referendum push the “Emerald Initiative,” a play on the Amethyst Initiative more than 130 college presidents signed last year. The presidents want lawmakers to rethink the national drinking age of 21, arguing that current laws drive college drinking into the shadows and encourage binges.

The leader of the Amethyst Initiative, John McCardell Jr., president emeritus of Vermont’s Middlebury College, says there’s a big difference between the two debates.

“The fact is marijuana is prohibited across the board. It’s not a matter of age discrimination, as where alcohol is concerned,” he said.