After a dorm room discussion with friends over the war on drugs, Matt Huppert (CAS ‘08) decided to start Georgetown University’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Last night, Georgetown’s NORML chapter held its inaugural meeting to a crowd of 12 Georgetown students.
The war on drugs comprises the government’s policies for restricting drug use nationwide.
“We thought this isn’t fair, right, how it should be,” Huppert said. “How can we reform this system?”
Since the 1970s, NORML has worked to decriminalize marijuana possession on the state and federal levels.
According to Karen Malovrh, NORML’s Chapter and Outreach Coordinator, the organization has increased its membership since the late 1990s. It now consists of 150 chapters, as well as a legal committee of 375 lawyers.
Currently, one third of all Americans believe that marijuana should be legal, while two thirds promote the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, Malovrh said.
Headquartered in the District of Columbia, the organization has brought in over 50 drug reform groups, as well as several NORML chapters, to lobby on the hill. Most lobbying, however, happens on the state level, Malovrh said.
At first, Huppert wanted to join NORML at a national level, but he decided that starting a Georgetown chapter would be more effective in the long run.
“We’re college students and we have thousands of other students who also want to be active,” he said. “In any project like this, strength comes in numbers and we need numbers for change.”
Huppert hopes the group will prove that college students still see a potential for change.
Currently, SAC has not approved NORML as an official club, but co-founder Lauran Kostka (CAS ‘08), a Voice staffer, believes the group will receive recognition by the end of the year.
Instead of putting a focus on the penalization of simple marijuana possession, Huppert emphasized the need for the government to turn its attention to education and treatment of addicted drug users.
“The line is between addiction and recreation,” he said. “Marijuana is definitely on the side of recreation.”
George Washington University’s NORML chapter has different goals for its newly formed group, which boasts over 150 members. The chapter, led by sophomore Gregory Hersh, plans on changing GWU’s marijuana policies.
“If you get caught with pot you automatically lose housing,” Hersh said.
The group has weekly meetings, in which GWU policy gets thrown around the room, not talks about the war on drugs.
Hersh does not foresee a national change in the near future.
“It would be a colossal undertaking to change public opinion,” he said.
Both presidents of the GWU chapter and the GU chapter want to join forces.
“I want there to be a strong coalition between college chapters and local chapters,” Huppert said.
