A body composed of student government representatives from each of the University of Colorado's three statewide campuses, the ICSF (University of Colorado Intercampus Student Forum) unanimously drafted an anti-Amendment 44 resolution during an Oct. 16 meeting, and will be addressing the public Thursday, Nov. 2 at 10 a.m. on the Auraria campus to demonstrate their stance.
“[The ICSF's] primary interest is fostering excellence in the academic and social environment at the University of Colorado, and we do not feel the passage of Amendment 44 would be compatible with that in any way,” said ICSF member Colin Rose, vice president of the student government Association for the University of Colorado at Denver. “Therefore, we feel compelled to voice our opposition by way of this resolution.”
The reasons that the ICSF gives for opposing the resolution are the comfortable, well-worn rationales that have been spewed forth ever since this inane, expensive and corrupt drug war began.
"There is a clear correlation between marijuana use and schizophrenia," said Evans, citing a study conducted by Patrick Skosnik of Indiana University that was printed in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
They can no longer make racist claims such as "Reefer makes darkies think they are as good as white men" or claim a link between violent crimes and use of the demon weed. So they have toned it down by "proving" that schizophrenia is linked to marijuana use.
I am not a scientist but I do know that correlation does not equal causation. What if marijuana users are self-medicating for undiagnosed schizophrenia? I wonder how many studies are being done about the link between schizophrenia and marijuana from a completely unbiased point of view. It's amazing the number of studies that are being done to "prove" that women are less intelligent than men and that some races are less intelligent than other races, just for starters. You would think that scientists would have better things to do than justify bigotry. Is this really the best way to advance the human race?
I eye the claims about schizophrenia with a lot of suspicion. Science can be abused and manipulated in a way to push a political agenda. Did you know that "Intelligent Design"* is scientific?
Oh here I am going on about the abuse of science when there are prohibitionists to make fun of. ICSF wants to cast doubt on SAFER's assertion that alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana. Do they do this by stating the facts about marijuana? They certainly would have to refrain from comparing the number of overdose deaths due to marijuana and alcohol, since marijuana has never killed anyone. Do they mention that there is no correlation between marijuana and violent crime? Can the same be said for alcohol? No, the facts are no friends of the ICSF and they have to fall back on a dose of good-ole reefer madness with a side order of classic stoner stereotypes.
“I think that [the university students] understand the issue,” said Evans. “Kids that are smoking pot aren't going to do well in school, and [people] don't associate marijuana with academic excellence.”
Everybody "knows" that stoners don't do well in school.
"A lie, repeated often enough, will end up as truth." Dr Paul Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Minister of Propaganda (1933-1945)
Luckily we have Mason Tvert to counterbalance this insanity.
For Mason Tvert, supporter of Amendment 44 and representative for the Alcohol-MJ Equalization Initiative, the anti-amendment resolution is “disgusting.”
Tvert said that a majority of students, 68 percent of CU's student body, voted in favor of the non-profit Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation's (SAFER) initiative that promotes marijuana as a safer alternative to alcohol.
SAFER's supporters say marijuana is far less addictive than other narcotics and alcohol, and that is safer for long-term use.
“Simply said, [that percentage of students] didn't think that the penalties for marijuana should be any greater than the penalties for alcoholŠand it's unfortunate to see student representatives acting in direct opposition to their student body,” said Tvert during an interview with the Colorado Daily Tuesday. “Right now our policies are pushing students and adults to drink, and I don't think it makes sense to punish those adults who make the rational, safer choice to use marijuana instead of alcohol.”
SAFER has done an incredible job of campaigning for this issue. The way they have defended marijuana with facts and have put this issue forward as a way to try to prevent marijuana from getting into the hands of minors has been outstanding. They are doing a fantastic job of pushing drug law reform and I hope that other activists (including myself) can learn from them. I wonder how these tactics could be used in Saskatchewan.
*Intelligent Design is my very favorite oxymoron!
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