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High Times Bestows High Honors On MU
Student groups were praised for helping pass pro-pot propositions
Tina Marie Macias | Columbia Missourian | 09/07/2006

MU has earned yet another recognition, though this is one some students, parents and alumni might not brag about.

The university has received high marks from a monthly “stoner-friendly guide.” High Times magazine ranks MU third on the list of university campuses helping to soften the nation’s pot laws.

The magazine’s October 2006 issue recognizes the efforts of two student organizations — the MU chapters of Students for Sensible Drug Policies and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws — that helped pass two city propositions.

One protects medical marijuana patients from criminal penalties; the other decriminalizes marijuana and makes the drug the lowest priority for law enforcement.

“The High Times article is a little misleading — it characterizes the propositions as a student project — but the campaign was more diverse than that,” said Columbia attorney Dan Viets, who is on the board of directors for the Columbia Alliance for Patients and Education, which helped pass the propositions in November 2004.

However, “students were some of the hardest workers in the campaign, especially in terms of petitioning,” he said.

Sean Randall, a junior in MU’s political science program and chapter president of NORML, said he knew about the article in July.

“The biggest thing that these propositions did was it really took the issue of marijuana and brought it out in the open in this community,” Randall said. “It made a whole lot more people realize that this isn’t an extremely left, liberal initiative that can only get passed in California.”

Kris Krane, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policies, who compiled the list of colleges for High Times, said he appreciates the magazine for honoring activism.

“The War on Drugs, since its modern conception, has been justified in protecting children,” Krane said. “It’s incumbent of college students to say, ‘No more. Not in our name.’”

Randall said he is excited about the article and said he hopes people don’t “think that this a lot of people who get stoned a lot.”

“If they read the article and read why we were considered, they’ll realize that we’re a good group of people,” he said.

The writer and editor of the article, Dave Bienenstock, said the magazine has made lists similar to this in the past and has picked colleges with “the best pot or which school is the most counterculture in general,” but this is the first year it has focused on activism.

“Any college in America is going to have its marijuana smokers and marijuana culture,” Bienenstock said. “We try to have a little different focus each year.”

Mary Jo Banken, an MU spokeswoman, declined to comment on the list.

“MU doesn’t typically respond to rankings, because the rankings are apt to vary widely from year to year and from publication to publication,” she said.
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Related links: Top 10 Counterculture Colleges

iloveunot

the top ten counter colleges article inspired me to look into starting a norml or ssdp chapter on my campus