In a tie-dyed T-shirt, ripped jeans and a headband tied around shoulder-length hair, Benjamin Swartout got Lafayette College students to look up from their hookahs.

Swartout, 21, president of the Lafayette College chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, urged gathered students to support a fresh look at marijuana laws.

"This is where we make our stand and fight for our rights back, our liberties, our freedom," Swartout told about 100 students. "Today we proclaim the Emerald referendum at our school."

 

At a "smoke-in" Tuesday at March Field, the college's NORML chapter invited Lafayette administrators to engage in a "public, dispassionate, objective debate about marijuana policies."

The demonstration -- which included hand-rolled tobacco cigarettes but not marijuana -- was part of a national push called the Emerald Initiative.

The Emerald Initiative, launched April 1 in conjunction with the start of Alcohol Awareness month, is a response to the Amethyst Initiative, a group of 130 college presidents who say a reduced drinking age would cut down on dangerous drinking. Students at more than 80 colleges nationwide have urged their presidents to join the Emerald Initiative.

Emerald Initiative backers say marijuana is safer than alcohol and that allowing its use could lead to fewer students who engage in dangerous drinking.

No Lafayette representatives were apparently present at the smoke-in. Lafayette President Daniel Weiss, who backed the Amethyst Initiative, was not available for comment, a spokeswoman said Tuesday, prior to the demonstration.

Not far from a large, inflatable playpen rented to draw attention and among dozens of students dressed in tie-dye and other '60s-style garb, Lafayette student Hank Bink acknowledged the Emerald Initiative would have to overcome people who don't take young marijuana advocates seriously.

"That's definitely something we have to face," said Bink, 21, secretary of the NORML chapter. "But we're trying to raise the logic. We're trying to get people to hear us out."