By: Lloyd Thompson-Taylor
Maryland’s decision to decriminalize marijuana and approve medical marijuana usage has led to questions among Hood students about campus policy changes.
The new law has not legalized marijuana but has simply made the offense of having it less severe. Persons caught with less than 10 grams will be fined. rather than facing criminal prosecution.
Also,medical dispensaries and licensed cultivators are now permitted to distribute synthetic marijuana to prescribed patients.
Student reaction to the changes and the possibility of legalization of marijuana vary. Strong reactions exist on both sides of the legalization issue but most students are waiting to hear more.
“I don’t think weed should be legalized,” Cayleigh Wolf, a junior, said. “There are much more productive ways for people to spend their time.”
Wolf is studying to be a teacher and also had concerns on the effect that current and future legislation might have on her teenage students. She worries about the educational aspect of drug prevention programming in schools.
Other students do not see the problem with decriminalization and in fact are hopeful that Maryland, like Colorado and Washington, will ultimately decide to legalize marijuana.
“Scientifically speaking, there have been no proven harmful effects caused by marijuana,” Cory Rabenold, sophomore, said. “Cigarettes and alcohol are legal and they have been proven to cause liver failure, cancer, addiction and death. The law needs to catch up with what the public already knows.”
Rabenold admits that he does not smoke marijuana but still sees the value in legalizing a drug that does not benefit society in any manner.
Still other students see the potential benefits of marijuana and its stimulating effects on both Frederick and Maryland as a whole.
“All we have to do is tax it,” Matthew Stevens, senior economics major, said. “Either way, both sides could win. If the legislation pulls together to eventually legalize marijuana then the taxes brought in would help bring extra money to our economy.
Legalizing marijuanacould create jobs and new infrastructure. On the other hand, if the government wanted to ban the usage of marijuana, the same effect could be accomplished by taxing marijuana to an exorbitant degree.”
Taxation, for either purpose, leads to increased revenue at the local, state, and federal level, he noted.
As college students go back and forth over the viability of legalized marijuana, the administrators have to think about both the long and short-term effects on their institutions and the students they govern.
Zachary Luhman, director of Residence Life and Judicial Affairs for Hood College, acknowledges the legislation and its potential for debate but does not see any major changes in campus policy occurring.
“Our hope is that our students, as responsible adults accountable for their own decision-making, whatever they do,” Luhman said.
“Colleges and universities policies, while they are guided by the law, are not always completely sync,” he said. “Institutions have the ability to limit behavior that they’ll allow beyond what the law will allow within limits.”
Luhman said the college currently prefers to educate students rather than penalize them.
“Yes, the office gives out sanctions but the learning aspect is what we want students to take away from it all,”he said.
He does not see much change in policy in the short-term and no absolute changes until the federal government takes a permanent position.
Campus Safety Chief Dan Spedden wants students to keep in mind the fact that, even with the recent legislation, is still an illegal substance.
“If you’re an Herbal-American and you’re watching what’s going on in other states and then you see your state legalize medical marijuana then you’re going to want to see that change happen soon but it’s not legal yet,” he said. “It’s just not.”
Nothing has changed here on campus,Spedden warns students. Whatever the current legislation is, it has not had an effect on current Hood drug policy.
“I’ve been here five months and we’ve had maybe three marijuana cases, so it’s not a huge deal,”he said.
Maryland has opened the way to a greater and lengthier conversation involving the issue of marijuana.
“I think it’s an interesting time in the culture of this question,” Luhman said. “It’ll be interesting to see how that change evolves or continues or if it evolves or continues or if it reverses itself…whatever is going to take place, it’ll be interesting to see what happens.”