Marijuana is safer than alcohol. That's the message from a group at the University of Virginia Thursday afternoon. 

"Students for Sensible Drug Policy" joined students at more than 80 other colleges nationwide to push universities to stop driving students to drink and allow them to use marijuana, which they call a safer recreational alternative.  They argue that policies on campuses punish students more harshly for pot than for alcohol violations. 

Katherine Fishbeine, with Students For Sensible Drug Policy, says "We're trying to, across the country, hand it out to all of college campus presidents and have them sign it to say that they acknowledge that marijuana is a safer choice than alcohol and they appreciate that this is a choice that should be made." 

There were also rallies at Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth and Old Dominion universities.

BURLINGTON, Vt. -- Earlier this week the Vermont State Senate yanked a bill that would have legalized marijuana dispenseries. But the pot debate isn't over.

Thursday -- the beginning of alcohol awareness month -- a student at the University of Vermont joined others around the country with a similar message to say that smoking marijuana is safer than getting drunk.

The students behind the movement want more relaxed consequences for marijuana violations.

April is Alcohol Awareness Month and I found it fitting in Tuesday’s issue of TNH to read an article explaining “drunken etiquette.” It got me thinking: nobody wants find themselves belligerently drunk in front of a UNH police officer, nobody wants to do something stupid that could endanger themselves or people around them but that’s what alcohol does.

Lowering inhibitions and forgetting the problems of the school week just for a night is what college students do best, but what if we could use a substance to “party” that would save us from being tackled on the spot for stumbling on that walk to Wildcat? What if we had a safer way to party that didn’t induce violence, sexual assault or property damage like alcohol does? According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Task Force on College Drinking, each year the use of alcohol by college students contributes to approximately 1,700 student deaths, 600,000 unintentional student injuries, 695,000 assaults involving students, and 97,000 sexual assaults and date rapes involving students. Fortunately, use of cannabis has never been considered a factor in violent crime or sexual assaults.