TOOLS OF THE TRADE
Marijuana Use on Campus
BY KEN SCHNECK
A student walked into my office recently asking if Marlboro College had signed the Emerald Initiative. I launched immediately into my well-worn diatribe about how the college did not support the initiative because the call for a multifaceted debate to discuss safer drinking had devolved into a one-dimensional dialogue on lowering the drink- ing age. Somewhere between my mention of “responsibility” and “the history of Mothers Against Drunk Driving,” the student interrupted me. “No, that’s the alcohol initiative; the Emerald Initiative is about marijuana.” He gave
me a postcard on glossy cardstock emblazoned with a marijuana leaf, asked me to consider it, and went on his way.
The Emerald Initiative is the response of the national nonprofit organization SAFER (Safer Alternative For Enjoyable
Recreation) to the Amethyst Initiative, a call by more than
130 university presidents and chancellors to debate whether
lowering the legal drinking age to 18 could reduce dangerous college drinking. The Emerald Initiative calls on college
presidents to “support an informed and dispassionate public
debate” on marijuana use on campus.
SAFER “works to highlight the fact that marijuana is far
safer than alcohol both to the consumer and to society, and
that it makes no sense to steer people toward drinking instead
of making the rational, safer choice to use marijuana.” The
glossy postcard the student gave me suggests that marijuana
presents a safer option than alcohol for students, and “
imbalanced” policies that carry more substantial sanctions for
marijuana should be changed.
As a senior student affairs officer (SSAO) who entered
student life through the field of health education, addressing
marijuana use on campus is always a thorny issue. Cries of
“It’s not addictive,” “It shouldn’t be lumped with other drugs
like cocaine,” and “It helps me be more creative” have dogged
every campus dialogue about drug use and policy enforce-
ment and revision. The following basic tenets can help SSAOs
navigate this terrain:
