Marijuana legal reform has reached an all—time high at George Washington University.
Among Americans between the ages of 18 and 25, 16.6 percent reported using marijuana within the last month, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
The George Washington University Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is working closely with GW’s Student Association in an attempt to moderate the university’s disciplinary measures for students who are caught using marijuana, according to Greg Hersh (GW `08), president of the school’s NORML chapter.
Last week, GW Student Association President Lamar Thorpe vetoed a NORML resolution proposing that marijuana use carry less severe university sanctions, more closely mirroring the punishments for underage drinking. Before Thorpe signs off on the marijuana resolution, which the Student Senate passed on Feb. 6, he wants to see specific evidence that there is a need for reform, according to GW’s student newspaper, The Hatchet.
Thorpe and NORML are creating a commission composed of student senators, NORML members, faculty, educators from the GW Center for Alcohol and Drug Education and administrators from Student Judicial Services in order to study on GW’s current disciplinary policies, according to Hersh.
“We started off on the wrong foot by leaving out the administration,” Hersh said.
The commission, which has yet to be formed, will look into how current drug policies have affected individual students charged with marijuana use in the past, according to Hersh. The commission will present its findings to the faculty and the Student Senate, and NORML will draft a new resolution accordingly.
The current minimum sanction for use or possession of marijuana is eviction from campus residence halls, according to the University’s Student Code of Conduct.
Josh Pfeiffer (GW `07) does not believe that the current penalty is unnecessarily harsh.
“Housing at GW is scarce, and if you don’t want to abide by the rules then you should think twice about using marijuana,” he said. “University housing is a privilege to have.”
Ben Matlin (GW `07) also disagrees with NORML’s claim that marijuana use should be punished the same way as underage drinking, but he agreed with their assertion that the current punishment is too strong.
“It’s like comparing apples to oranges,” he said. “But for someone to lose housing on their first offense is ridiculous.”
The Georgetown University Student Association has not encountered any proposals or resolutions to reform the official sanctions carried by marijuana use at Georgetown, according to new GUSA President Ben Shaw (COL `08). If the issue does come up in the future, Shaw said that he would try to promote “lots of conversation with student groups and administrators.”
Taylor Wray (COL `08), president of Georgetown’s NORML chapter, which was founded in the fall of 2005 and is not recognized by the University, said that his group does not plan to work with GUSA.
After hearing about the GW initiation, Georgetown NORML considered trying to reform the Code of Conduct, Wray said. Sanctions for marijuana use vary by case and can include fines, rehabilitation, recommendations for counseling, or suspension, according to Georgetown’s Alcohol and Other Drugs Policy.
“Looking into the Georgetown Student Code, we found that there is a large spectrum of penalties for both alcohol and marijuana,” he said. “There wasn’t a smoking gun that we could point at for change.”
Wray also believes that a marijuana policy change at Georgetown would be unproductive and possibly unnecessary because of the discrepancy between policy and punishment.
“Here the letter of the law doesn’t always extend to reality,” he said. “Department of Public Safety officers don’t always do what they are required to do.”
