420
Founder
University of Colorado police on at least five occasions this semester have taken marijuana away from smokers on campus and gave warnings instead of tickets, records show.
According to police, the warnings have nothing to do with the campus initiative students passed last spring that asked officials to lighten up the penalties for lighting up their pipes.
"It has no bearing on how we're doing business," CU Police Lt. Tim McGraw said Thursday.
CU officials have said they will not bend to a marijuana reform group that pushed the student measure through last spring and now is waging a controversial campaign in Denver.
Police logs show that since the fall semester started in late-August, there have been a couple of courses of action for people caught with weed on campus:
Six peoplehave been ticketed for marijuana use. Of those, five were ticketed or arrested on additional charges, including obstructing police officers, underage drinking, drunken driving and false reporting.
Four groupsof students have been referred to judicial affairs after they were busted with pot on Farrand Field or in campus parking lots. Records from judicial affairs are confidential, and so the outcome of those investigations is unknown.
The reform group, Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, came to CU months after a freshman fraternity pledge died of alcohol poisoning in 2004. The group also passed a similar student initiative in Fort Collins at Colorado State University, where a student there also had died of alcohol poisoning.
Before the student vote in Boulder, SAFER held rallies at the Dalton Trumbo Fountain and near Farrand Field preceding the annual 4/20 weed smoke-out on April 20. The organization said alcohol long has been linked to overdose deaths, sexual assault, violent crime and vandalism on campus and that marijuana is a safer alternative.
The organization's executive director, Mason Tvert, is organizing demonstrations in Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's office, and the group contends that marijuana legalization will help curb domestic violence because adults will opt for pot over alcohol. The group recently scaled back billboards that portrayed a battered woman because of controversy surrounding the signs.
On Tuesday, Denver residents will vote on the SAFER proposal that the city make it legal for smokers, ages 21 and older, to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana. Even if Denver votes "yes," police still could file marijuana possession charges under state law. It is a petty offense, punishable by a fine up to $100, according to state statute.
Tvert says he'll be back in Boulder soon because he has unfinished business.
"This is over on Tuesday," Tvert said. "I'm pretty open for the next seven months."
Tvert said that CU officials are not listening to students who voted to lessen marijuana penalties.
He said there is a possibility SAFER will campaign to get another initiative on the campus ballot in the spring, and, in the meantime, stage demonstrations on campus.
"We did not come ( to Boulder ) just to get attention and leave," Tvert said. "We want to change the way things are done."
Source: Dirt (Boulder CO)
Contact: https://boulderdirt.com/contact/
Copyright: 2005 Dirt
Website: https://boulderdirt.com/
According to police, the warnings have nothing to do with the campus initiative students passed last spring that asked officials to lighten up the penalties for lighting up their pipes.
"It has no bearing on how we're doing business," CU Police Lt. Tim McGraw said Thursday.
CU officials have said they will not bend to a marijuana reform group that pushed the student measure through last spring and now is waging a controversial campaign in Denver.
Police logs show that since the fall semester started in late-August, there have been a couple of courses of action for people caught with weed on campus:
Six peoplehave been ticketed for marijuana use. Of those, five were ticketed or arrested on additional charges, including obstructing police officers, underage drinking, drunken driving and false reporting.
Four groupsof students have been referred to judicial affairs after they were busted with pot on Farrand Field or in campus parking lots. Records from judicial affairs are confidential, and so the outcome of those investigations is unknown.
The reform group, Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, came to CU months after a freshman fraternity pledge died of alcohol poisoning in 2004. The group also passed a similar student initiative in Fort Collins at Colorado State University, where a student there also had died of alcohol poisoning.
Before the student vote in Boulder, SAFER held rallies at the Dalton Trumbo Fountain and near Farrand Field preceding the annual 4/20 weed smoke-out on April 20. The organization said alcohol long has been linked to overdose deaths, sexual assault, violent crime and vandalism on campus and that marijuana is a safer alternative.
The organization's executive director, Mason Tvert, is organizing demonstrations in Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper's office, and the group contends that marijuana legalization will help curb domestic violence because adults will opt for pot over alcohol. The group recently scaled back billboards that portrayed a battered woman because of controversy surrounding the signs.
On Tuesday, Denver residents will vote on the SAFER proposal that the city make it legal for smokers, ages 21 and older, to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana. Even if Denver votes "yes," police still could file marijuana possession charges under state law. It is a petty offense, punishable by a fine up to $100, according to state statute.
Tvert says he'll be back in Boulder soon because he has unfinished business.
"This is over on Tuesday," Tvert said. "I'm pretty open for the next seven months."
Tvert said that CU officials are not listening to students who voted to lessen marijuana penalties.
He said there is a possibility SAFER will campaign to get another initiative on the campus ballot in the spring, and, in the meantime, stage demonstrations on campus.
"We did not come ( to Boulder ) just to get attention and leave," Tvert said. "We want to change the way things are done."
Source: Dirt (Boulder CO)
Contact: https://boulderdirt.com/contact/
Copyright: 2005 Dirt
Website: https://boulderdirt.com/
