MILWAUKEE (WKOW) --  Some University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee students are joining 80 other colleges to push for legalized marijuana.

The students nationwide say "Stop Driving Us to Drink". They want to be able to use marijuana, what they call a safer alternative to alcohol.

More than eighty colleges and universities in 34 states are taking action on campus on April 1, but they say this is no April Fools joke.   It's the first day of National Alcohol Awareness Month.  Students will be out on their campuses distributing information about the relative harms of alcohol and marijuana, as well as holding signs and banners that read: "This is NOT a joke... Let us make the SAFER choice!"

The students argue that laws and policies on and around most college campuses punish students more harshly for marijuana use than for alcohol use, steering them toward drinking and away from using marijuana -- a far less harmful substance -- instead. "Every objective study on marijuana has concluded that it's far safer than alcohol for the user and for society," said Josh Bazett-Jones, president of SSDP at WSU. "Yet laws and campus policies punish students more harshly for marijuana, sending the dangerous message that alcohol is more acceptable despite the fact that it contributes to all sorts of serious problems that are not associated with marijuana use.