Pubdate: Fri, 29 Apr 2011
Source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (TX)
Copyright: 2011 The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
Contact:  http://www.lubbockonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/841
Author: Matthew McGowan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

RAPE OPPONENTS PUSH POT TO REPLACE ALCOHOL

A Colorado-based initiative to open dialogue about what impact, if 
any, marijuana's legalization would have on sexual assault rates 
could soon plant roots in Lubbock.

Shannon Drew, 20 and a Texas Tech sophomore from Amarillo, is using 
April's Sexual Assault Awareness Month to drum up local support for 
the Women's Marijuana Movement, or WMM.

The year-old effort aims to spark what national organizer Mason Tvert 
in Denver called "public dialogue" on how marijuana legalization 
could prevent alcohol-related crimes against women.

WMM advocates have yet to frame the theory as grounds for the 
outright legalization of pot, but they are calling for a more open 
discussion about whether the taboo of marijuana drives many 
party-goers to drink more alcohol, which Drew says is "the No. 1 date 
rape drug."

The movement has yet to pick up traction in Lubbock, and some experts 
are leery of its premise.

Diana DiNitto, a University of Texas professor with expertise in both 
violence against women and substance abuse, agreed alcohol can 
sometimes stir aggressive behavior, but she said WMM's theory 
discounts too many social and personal factors.

"In the long run, I think it would be na?ve to say we could just 
substitute marijuana for alcohol and not have these problems," she 
said. "That's just too simplistic for science."

She also fears talk about substituting one substance for another 
could distract from more direct, and more effective, ways to combat 
substance abuse.

But Drew, who has worked with local rape victims for the past year, 
said college campuses like Tech must harbor a more open discussion of 
the psychological and social effects marijuana, particularly as binge 
drinking rates climb.

And with binge drinking comes the most common form of rape in which 
the assailant knows the victim, according to the Rape, Abuse and 
Incest National Network. Roughly two-thirds of rapes are committed by 
familiar assailants, a category in which college date rape falls, and 
30 percent of all rapes are linked to a drunk assailants.

Studies have shown as many as one out of every four female college 
students is a rape victim, according to the National Sexual Violence 
Resource Center.

"In the college circuit, alcohol has been involved in every single 
story I've heard," Drew said. "Every victim that I've talked to here 
in Lubbock that was a college student, alcohol was used by either the 
victim or the assailant.

"And many, many girls have said to me that if they hadn't been 
drinking or he hadn't been drinking, it probably wouldn't have happened."

Tvert also cited studies showing the link between drinking and rape 
and said he understands marijuana and alcohol are not mutually 
exclusive, meaning access to one doesn't necessarily mean one will 
consume less of the other.

But he said there's too little to lose and too much to gain in 
studying potential links.

At the Lubbock Rape Crisis Center, community educator Leslie Timmons 
said the WMM seems to be "grasping at straws."

"We don't know that it would make a significant impact on the rates 
of sexual assault," she said. "The way to prevent sexual assault is 
to teach respect to the perpetrators. Our prevention is focused on 
reaching people at a young age before there's a chance they turn into 
perpetrators by teaching them respect and tolerance and conflict resolution."

A message left with a professor at Tech's College of Human Sciences 
was not returned by press time Thursday.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom