Daniel Panzer said he tried everything to fight off his insomnia.

But the sleeping pills prescribed to the first-year chemistry student by his doctor were not working. Only medical marijuana, he said, would relax him and help him sleep.

However, the residence halls have a strict policy against its usage, even though Panzer had the necessary paperwork to prove he needed marijuana. He said he would sometimes have to walk to a friend’s apartment to smoke a joint and then walk back in order to fall asleep.

“I feel like a criminal sometimes for following the law,” Panzer, co-president of UCLA’s Students for Sensible Drug Policy, said. “It’s frustrating because I’m not doing anything wrong.”

Proponents of cannabis decriminalization on college campuses are hoping to use Alcohol Awareness Month, which began Thursday, to bolster their argument.

“The fact is 90 percent of America has used alcohol. We’re not adding another substance, we’re providing an alternative,” said Mason Tvert, executive director of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation. “These two (alcohol and marijuana) are the most popular recreational drugs in the world, and students, like any adult, should have the choice for a less-adverse drug when they recreate.”

The organization introduced the Emerald Initiative, which calls on campuses to allow the use of marijuana as a means to reduce excessive use of alcohol, he said.

This proposal is a response to the Amethyst Initiative, which is endorsed by more than 130 universities and calls for a debate to lower the drinking age to promote less-dangerous drinking.

The group has worked with students from 13 college campuses to pass the referendum, which would make marijuana penalties no higher than those for alcohol. UCLA is not currently considering the measure.

“We recognize that (campuses) were punishing students more for marijuana than alcohol, sending a dangerous message that alcohol use is acceptable when it’s more dangerous,” he said.

Tvert said he believes the legalization of marijuana will lower the rate of excessive drinking on campuses.

However, Mark Kleiman, UCLA professor of public policy, said this is not the case.

“It would be a great argument, if it were true,” he said, adding that such a scenario would present a good argument for cannabis legalization.

While he said it is possible to say drinking is bad, he said there is no reason to say that the decriminalization of marijuana would lower alcohol use.

Nevertheless, he did say alcohol usage is much more dangerous.

Tvert said there are 600,000 student assaults each year from alcohol and 17,000 related deaths each year, but for marijuana, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not attributed any death or serious chronic illness.

Opponents, however, argue that marijuana use is dangerous and should not be legalized.

“Medical questions are best decided not by popular vote, but by science,” said R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, in an online statement.

He said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has stated that raw marijuana plants are not medicine and that legalized, regulated drugs cause damage to those who abuse them.

“(The issue) is especially meaningful in California, with the issue of legalization on the ballot,” said Lorie Singer, co-president of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, in reference to a November ballot proposition that would permit Californians 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana.

She added that since the campus policy on alcohol is less prohibitive, it provides a subtle encouragement to choose alcohol.

“When people move into the dorms, we get how to use alcohol safely to imply that there is a way to use it safely, but not marijuana,” she said.

Panzer said that, while decriminalizing marijuana on college campuses may not necessarily decrease excessive drinking, it does give students an alternative.

“It’s not like people will stop drinking; people still drink and smoke pot ... but if people go out and become intoxicated, they should have an option between something that is mild that can be smoked.