The academic penalties for marijuana offenses have been lowered to match the penalties for alcohol offenses beginning this semester, as agreed by the RazorCAT board Aug. 16^th, according to the policy. The RazorCAT board, which is headed by several administrative leaders and serves as a campus disciplinary team.

The policy change, which is a result of the Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) campaign, equalizes the penalties for possession and consumption of marijuana and alcohol on campus and is effective as long as the student possesses misdemeanor amounts of marijuana, which is less than one ounce of marijuana.

This policy change occurs after three years of encouragement from the UA chapter of the National Organization for the Reformation of Marijuana Laws (NORML) and a referendum passed last April by 67 percent of the student body.

“To have such a large percentage of the students vote for something like this and to actually see a policy change is monumental,” said Rob Pfountz, former president of NORML and a leader in the SAFER campaign. “It’s reinforcing the belief that we actually can change something.”

The UA is the first university in the nation to effectively implement a policy change through the SAFER campaign. While UA is the 13^th university to pass SAFER initiatives through their student body by a voting process, no other universities have been able to finalize policy changes through their administrations.

Read the entire story at http://www.uatrav.com/2010/lightening-up-new-policy-equalizes-marijuana-alcohol-policies/

Refuse to click the ‘like’ button on Facebook’s censorship of pot; push for Colorado legalization

Local pot advocates believe it is “ridiculous” that Facebook has blocked a marijuana legalization campaign from displaying the image of a pot leaf in ads on the social-networking site. Facebook has censored the Just Say Now campaign from using pot images in its advertising. The campaign aims to draw support for legalization efforts in several states, including a ballot initiative scheduled for 2012 in Colorado.

Pot advocates, however, say Facebook needs to get its priorities straight. They believe marijuana is a less dangerous substance than products such as alcohol and tobacco.

Banks across Colorado are increasingly shutting their doors to businesses in the medical marijuana industry, a trend that is only likely to increase now that dispensaries have been labeled a "sin business" by the state housing authority.

But while owners of medical marijuana establishments are locked out of government-backed small-business loans, nothing has stopped millions of dollars in federal assistance from flowing into one of Colorado's other so-called "sin business" industries.

That would be the booze business.

Pot advocates ask DARE officers to read book on pot vs. alcohol

Mason Tvert, the main man behind SAFER, lives to promote the theory that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol -- and if he can hype his book Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? at the same time, that's even better. These goals come together in Tvert's latest campaign -- challenging the idea that alcohol's less risky than weed by offering his tome for free to DARE instructors nationwide.

Tvert's latest campaign was inspired by a "Backers of Legal Pot Just Want to Get High," a San Jose Mercury News op-ed by Skip Miller, chairman of DARE America. The piece takes a stand against a pot legalization initiative headed to the California ballot in November.

In it, Miller writes about e-mails he's received from marijuana advocates -- but notes that "I have yet to see one that overcomes the body of scientific research demonstrating that smoking marijuana is harmful and does just one thing well: It gets people high. And that high comes with short- and long-term health risks that proponents of legal weed don't like to acknowledge."

Tvert took this assertion as a challenge. In addition to writing a sample e-mail complete with links to information that, in his view, puts the lie to Miller's claims above, he's pledged to give a copy of his book to every DARE instructor across the country, including those planning to attend the 23rd Annual DARE International Training Conference, which begins tomorrow in Cincinnati, Ohio.