University of Colorado administrators and local public health officials are trying to figure out ways to make an annual on-campus pro-marijuana rally blow away like a puff of smoke.

Every April 20, pot enthusiasts gather in the middle of Farrand Field to smoke copious amounts of marijuana. Typically, police don't intervene. But given the scandals currently rocking the school, Ron Stump, vice chancellor for student affairs, said he thinks tolerating crowds of hundreds of people cheerfully getting stoned definitely sends the wrong message.

"I think there's some students who feel that it doesn't represent them and it's not appropriate on our campus," Stump said. "I think they'd like to see us do something." Stump, who discussed the issue with city and county officials during a meeting this week, said he doesn't yet know what concrete steps the administration will take to discourage students from going ganja next month. At this point, he said, he wants to talk to student leaders to see what ideas they can come up with to keep the event from happening. Increased police presence "could be" one way of discouraging the rally, Stump said.

Mason Tvert, head of a Boulder-based nonprofit that emphasizes the relative safety of marijuana compared to alcohol, said the school shouldn't be trying to shut out the rally's message of marijuana tolerance. "This is something a whole lot of people believe in, and I think the university should listen," he said.

Boulder County Public Health Director Chuck Stout said he hopes to see the rally disappear, but not because he disagrees with its message. Those engaging in spliff-smoking civil disobedience will have a point when they argue that their illegal substance causes less harm than legal alcohol use does, Stout said. And he said he personally thinks harsh criminal penalties meted out for pot possession are wrong.

"This isn't to make a statement that marijuana is the most evil thing out there," he said. "Alcohol, frankly, from a medical perspective, can be far more dangerous than marijuana."

But while the protesters have a point on the merits, Stout said the rally will create a public perception that the school

simply doesn't need right now. The public is increasingly associating CU with continuing fallout from the athletic sex and recruiting scandal and its party-school image, Stout said. Pictures of hundreds of stoned undergrads won't exactly help, he said.

"This is a world-class university that we're very proud of," he said. "Given all that has gone on with substance use and abuse, this doesn't feel very sensitive. ... If we're trying to change that culture, having a mob rally that celebrates intoxication — that doesn't seem too smart."