FAYETTEVILLE -- According to election results released Thursday
evening, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville students overwhelmingly
approved a ballot measure calling on the school to loosen its sanctions
for marijuana use so that students are no longer steered toward
drinking instead of using marijuana -- a far less harmful substance.
Sixty-seven (67) percent of student voters approved the following
"SAFER Referendum" in the campus-wide election held March 31 to April 2:
Do you agree that University sanctions for the possession and
use of marijuana should be no greater than those imposed by the
University for the possession and use of alcohol, and that the
University should establish a task force to develop, implement and
study such a policy?
The SAFER Referendum was introduced and
sponsored by the University of Arkansas chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which will begin
working with university officials and student leaders to develop and
implement new campus policies that reflect the relative safety of
marijuana compared to alcohol and no longer threaten students with
harsher penalties for making the safer choice to use marijuana instead
of alcohol when they party. All of the candidates for student body
president and vice president vocally supported the SAFER Referendum,
including Associated Student Government President-Elect Mattie
Bookhout, who vowed to work with NORML UA and administrators to
implement the measure.
"The students have spoken, and they've
said, 'Stop driving us to drink,'" said NORML U of A spokesman Rob
Pfountz. "It is our sincere hope that the University will listen to the
students and work with us toward more rational and effective policies
on alcohol and marijuana. "If a student would prefer to sit in their
dorm room, use a little marijuana and relax with their friends rather
than attend a wild keg party off campus, we don't see why the
University would want to stop them," Pfountz said. "It's time for U of
A policies to catch up with the facts, and it's a fact that students
using marijuana are far safer than those using alcohol."
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism's Task Force on College Drinking, each year the use of
alcohol by college students contributes to approximately 1,700 student
deaths (including many fatal overdoses), 600,000 student injuries,
695,000 assaults involving students, and 97,000 sexual assaults and
date rapes involving students. The use of marijuana itself has not been
found to contribute to any deaths, and there has never been a single
fatal marijuana overdose in history. All objective research on
marijuana has also concluded that it does not contribute to violent or
aggressive behavior, or violent crimes like assault and sexual assault.
The Arkansas SAFER Referendum is the latest in the growing SAFER
Campuses movement emerging at major universities nationwide. NORML
Purdue worked -- and will continue to work -- closely with Safer
Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), a national organization
established in the wake of two high-profile alcohol overdose deaths at
universities in Colorado. Students at Purdue University also approved a
SAFER Referendum this past week, and such measures have been adopted at
at least six of the 15 largest colleges in the nation, including
schools such as Ohio State University, Florida State University, the
University of Central Florida, the University of Maryland, the
University of Texas-Austin, and the University of Washington, among
others.
"Arkansas is at the forefront of a major campus-based movement
sweeping the nation,'" said SAFER Executive Director Mason Tvert. "Some
may scoff at the idea of allowing students to use marijuana instead of
alcohol, but this is literally a matter of life and death, and it's
only a matter of time before we accept the fact that campuses and
surrounding communities would be safer if more students were using
marijuana instead of alcohol."
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