College students smoking weed on campus is not a new phenomenon. What has changed is that weed has taken up a big spotlight, especially in states that have legalized. Whether the students know it or not, colleges and universities actually allowing the smoking of pot on campus could mean the loss of millions of dollars of federal funding for the institutions in question.
According to the 1989 Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act, if federal drug laws are broken, schools could lose their funding.
Sure, itโs more than natural to cozy up in a circle of your best buds and, if youโre all 21 and live in a legal state, it would seem even more natural to spark up a jay or pass a vape pen or two around. But the millions of dollars at risk are what pays for student funding, among other things.
Vaughan Rees, the director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control at Harvard,ย told theย Boston Globe, โObviously, thereโs inconsistency between states and federal laws in the states where marijuana is being both decriminalized and legalized.โ
โThis is why federal policies in particular about drug legalization are a bad idea, because then youโre led into these conflicts between state and federal policies that are just not resolvable,โ said Jeffrey A. Miron, a Harvard economist who studies drug legalization. He told theย Boston Globeย that, obviously, the expulsion of a large amount of the student body is not the answer.
In the words of Lester Grinspoon, marijuana pioneer and emeritus of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, โWeโve been steeped in the alcohol model for so long, that if youโre an American, you drink. If they were going to use something, it should be cannabis, not alcohol. Itโs safer, but itโs also a much more interesting high.โ
Thereโs a lot of truth in the above statement, and though just as puffing on campus isnโt likely to slow down, keggers and drinking arenโt going anywhere fast either. Even though itโs found that inย states that legalize marijuana have a dip in alcohol sales, college is a rite of passage involving many substances for many.
Tynan Jackson, a Harvard junior who doesnโt smoke because of asthma, said that cannabis use was prevalent at Harvard and that, โThey receive federal funding so they have to institute this law, but how well they enforce it is really up to them. But theyโre not going to put you in handcuffs if you have a blunt in your hand.โ
This article was originally published onย The Fresh Toast.
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