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Fort Collins Weekly - April 6, 2005 Giant marijuana leaves chalked onto the pavement alongside the words "Rally Here 11:30" decorate the "free-speech" zone in front of Colorado State University's Lory Student Center on Thursday morning, where about 30 students stand around in loose clusters in front of a single conference table. The usual suspects mill about with their long dreadlocks, tie-dye T-shirts and old bicycles with metal baskets. But what is not so usual about the mid-morning assembly in support of CSU's Referendum for Marijuana Policy Reform is the presence of "Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation," the Boulder-based, non-student, grassroots organization driving the whole show. With a mission to "educate the public about the harmful consequences associated with alcohol as compared with the much safer—yet illegal—substance: marijuana," SAFER has been working to affect local university policies around the forbidden plant since its inception in January. Representatives from the group have been driving up to the Fort Collins campus for the past three months, handing out newsletters, generating email lists and generally searching for CSU students interested in their cause. "Eventually we met some students interested in potentially running their own campaign," says Mason Tvert, executive director of SAFER. "But they said 'we're busy, we're students, we need help.'" Tvert and his assistant director, Evan Ackerfeld, helped CSU students draw up a referendum concerning the school's marijuana policies and the petition necessary to place that referendum on the ballot being voted on this week. "They (SAFER) were just sitting in the plaza one day and I came up and said 'I want to get involved, what can I do?'" says Zana Buttermore-Baca, the referendum campaign manager for CSU. "I just wanted to be a part of something I could believe in." Buttermore-Baca and her friends got very involved with SAFER's mission by gathering over 2,000 student signatures in six days, surpassing the minimum number required by the university by hundreds. The non-profit organization has had much success lately on both the CU and CSU campuses by finding students with the passion of Buttermore-Baca who are willing to grow their own campaigns to place marijuana policy reform on their schools' ballots. Funded by a grant from a private donor, SAFER's pro-pot message seems to be catching on like wildfire with Colorado college students who lately have been living in climates steeped in alcohol-related deaths, rapes and other acts of drunken violence.
"In no way is the referendum trying to change federal or state law," says Nic Redavid, deputy manager of CSU's Election Committee. "It merely lobbies administration to look at punishment procedures on campus." Historically, the referendum represents a way in which citizens can influence government directly—a classic form of direct democracy. But when a movement like this is inspired by voices from outside the community, how telling is the resulting referendum of that population's true concerns? The 2,000-plus students who signed SAFER's petition no doubt believe strongly in lesser penalties for pot-smoking on their campus, but does the importation of this idea somehow foul the democratic process? Has CSU's election process been hijacked?
"This is your school—you have the right to express your voices!" the recent University of Richmond graduate yells. "Tell your friends this is your chance to tell your school how you want it run. You guys gotta get out there, you gotta get online, you gotta vote, you gotta let them know what you think!" Tvert says he started SAFER earlier this year with the intention of raising awareness about the effects of marijuana versus the effects of alcohol in order to make college campuses safer. The 2004 deaths of Colorado college students Samantha Spady and Lynn Gordon-Bailey have resounded across the country, becoming nation-wide symbols for all that is wrong with the alcohol culture many believe is running rampant on campuses everywhere. A recent immigrant to the Front Range from his home in Arizona, Tvert admits to relocating and starting SAFER in the one spot in the country he felt would benefit from its message the most. "We want to go to every campus in the country," Tvert says of his group's long-term goals. "But it comes down to where is the biggest problem, and where will we have the biggest impact?" The former campaigner and lobbyist's voice rises with passion: "We came here because this is where we can make the biggest impact the quickest—our impact being saving human lives." Sandra Davis, a CSU political science professor, says that such localized marketing of ideas is not so unusual in the world of politics. "Ideas move across jurisdictions quite easily," explains Davis. "It's not uncommon for interest groups to go outside the home boundaries where they're based and try to sell their ideas." Although she says she has not been closely following her school's marijuana referendum, Davis says that despite its ubiquity, involvement by groups like SAFER in the democratic process often raises questions. "It can feel kind of uncomfortable for those who feel that people are importing their ideas," Davis says. "But ideas are going to spread one way or the other." Tvert is the first to admit that there is practically no better place to spread the idea of acceptable marijuana use than on college campuses. But the organizer would rather attribute his group's focus on university culture as a reaction to the inherent dangers of alcohol abuse and its acceptance by the general public than on the promotion of marijuana. While his organization uses a green, nine-leafed pot plant on their business cards and newsletters, the young politician—who has worked on congressional campaigns and for the Marijuana Policy Reform group—insists that SAFER's main objective is to decrease alcohol abuse among college students by raising awareness about marijuana and its perceived safety. But SAFER's assistant director, Ackerfeld, doesn't seem as concerned with alcohol policies as his counterpart. He steps from behind the conference table and raps a bit, from the hip. "Ancient
texts make mention of the plant as the answer to the evolutionary
fate of man—nowadays we're indoctrinated with the stance
that demonizes and condemns what we cannot understand—"
the activist stares intently into the now-cheering crowd, "—throw
off all misconceptions about relative harm because lobbyists and
politicians have such devilish charm." Whether or not CSU students would have come up with a marijuana reform referendum on their own will never be known. But Buttermore-Baca, the campaign manager for CSU's referendum, makes this notion seem as far-fetched as a frat kid who hates beer. "People who already smoke aren't going to smoke more," she says of the effect of the referendum if passed. "People who don't smoke probably aren't going to start—I don't really think that's gonna change, but I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say though. I have a test in five minutes." Meanwhile, Tvert has both the mic, and the rapt attention of the pro-pot crowd in front of it. "They think that this is a bad image for the school, but you're gonna let them know that what you think is a bad image is students drinking themselves to death every day," Tvert begins to speak louder and faster. "You think it's a bad image for them to accept alcohol as something that is, you know, legal and acceptable in our culture. You know what? F*ck that! |
