A group called Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) said students at the University of Oregon and 80 other colleges and universities plan rallies April 1 "to urge their universities to stop driving them to drink and allow them to use marijuana as a safer recreational alternative," according to a press release.April 1 marks the first day of National Alcohol Awareness Month -- as well as April Fool's Day -- and the group's press release claims 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!", according to SAFER.

During the day, the group said students will visit the office of the university president to deliver a copy of the book, "Marijuana Is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink?", along with copies of the "Emerald Initiative," which they will urge their respective presidents to endorse.

The Emerald Initiative is described as SAFER's response to the Amethyst Initiative -- a statement endorsed by more than 130 college presidents and chancellors, calling for "informed and dispassionate public debate" on whether lowering the legal drinking age to 18 would reduce levels of student drinking and incidences of the serious problems associated with it. 

The "Emerald Initiative" calls on these same presidents and chancellors -- as well as others -- to support "informed and dispassionate public debate" on whether allowing students to use marijuana more freely could reduce dangerous drinking on and around college campuses.

Emerald Initiative Statement

It’s time to address the culture of alcohol on campus
 
Student alcohol use at our nation’s colleges and universities has reached epidemic levels.
 
The consensus among researchers, educators and policymakers is that a “culture of alcohol” on and around college campuses is largely responsible for the popularity, frequency, and degree of student drinking.
 
Yet efforts to change this “culture of alcohol” – which rely heavily on encouraging students to “drink responsibly” – have largely failed to address it and in some cases continue to fuel it.
 
College students are being driven to drink
 
It is time to explore the benefits of encouraging students to “party responsibly” rather than “drink responsibly.”
 
Alcohol and marijuana are by far the two most popular recreational substances available to college students.
 
Every objective study on marijuana has concluded that it is far less harmful than alcohol both to the user and to society yet students face more severe legal and university penalties for marijuana use than they do for alcohol use.

Such laws and policies are driving students to drink instead of making the rational, safer choice to use marijuana. In doing so, they are fueling the dangerous “culture of alcohol” on our nation’s college and university campuses.

How many more alcohol-related incidents must occur before we consider a new approach?
We call upon our elected officials and fellow university leaders:

To support an informed and dispassionate public debate on whether it would be more effective to provide students with an alternative to alcohol instead of simply encouraging them to use less when they drink.
 
To consider whether current laws and university policies, which punish individuals more for using marijuana than for using alcohol, steer students toward drinking and away from using a less harmful substance instead.
 
To invite new ideas about the best ways to prepare young adults to make responsible decisions about alcohol and marijuana.
 
We pledge ourselves and our institutions to playing a vigorous, constructive role as these critical discussions unfold.