The medical marijuana movement is “absolutely” a backdoor attempt to
legalize marijuana, according Michael Lerner, the organizer of the
Colorado Cannabis Convention that’s going on in Denver this weekend.
Lerner believes the current medical marijuana movement is nearly identical to
the second phase of prohibition in which some people feigned ailments
to get a doctor’s recommendation to drink booze. In 1929, there were
60,000 reported cases of snakebites Ń one of the ailments that doctors
could recommend alcohol for. After alcohol became legal again in 1933,
the number of reported snakebites declined dramatically, which Lerner
doesn’t see as a coincidence.
“Remember the guy who claimed they had a
snake bite in 1929 to be able to drink alcohol, a few years later was
able to walk down the street and purchase (alcohol)?” he said. “That’s
where we’re at.”
LONGMONT — A
couple of dozen Front Range Community College students gathered
Thursday to support the idea that marijuana is a safer drug than
alcohol.
“I will admit that smoking marijuana is bad for your lungs,” said
Christopher Pezza, president of the FRCC chapter of Students for
Sensible Drug Policy.
But people who smoke marijuana aren’t as likely as alcohol drinkers to engage in dangerous behavior, he said.
Students at more than 80 colleges and universities around the country,
including nine in Colorado, will hold on-campus rallies today urging
their universities to allow marijuana use as a safer recreational
alternative to alcohol. The nationwide rally is being coordinated by
Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), a nonprofit working
to education the public about the relative safety of marijuana compared
to alcohol. SAFER launched a campus initiative in 2005 in response to
student alcohol overdose deaths on the two largest college campuses in
Colorado. April 1 marks the first day of National Alcohol Awareness
Month and April Fools Day, and rallying students intend to hold signs
and banners reading “This is NOT a joke É Let us make the SAFER
choice!” A rally will take place locally at 1 p.m. on the Main Square
outside the Plaza Building at the Auraria Higher Education Center
campus, which serves the Community College of Denver, the University of
Colorado’s Denver students and Metropolitan State College of Denver.
There will also be rallies at the University of Denver and University
of Colorado’s Boulder and Colorado Springs campuses. More information
on the initiative can be found at www.safercampuses.org.
COLUMBIA — Members of Mizzou NORML, which argues for equal
punishment for alcohol and marijuana use, gathered in MU Speakers
Circle to rally for Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation's Day of
Action.
Students marched together to the chancellor's office to deliver a copy
of the "Emerald Initiative" and the book "Marijuana Is Safer: So why
are we driving people to drink?" Students hope to receive the
chancellor's endorsement of the "Emerald Initiative," Safer Alternative
for Enjoyable Recreations' initiative to open discussion about allowing
students to use marijuana.
"It's time our colleges and universities stop teaching students to
'drink responsibly' and start teaching them to 'party responsibly,'"
said Kellie Smith, president of Mizzou NORML.
