Pubdate: Sun, 15 Apr 2012
Source: Daily Camera (Boulder, CO)
Copyright: 2012 The Daily Camera.
Contact:  http://www.dailycamera.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/103

AGAINST THE 4/20 CRACKDOWN

As a philosophy professor at CU-Boulder, normally I am content to 
debate ethical issues in the context of the classroom, presenting the 
competing arguments to my students without taking a stand myself.

But sometimes it's best to speak out, and with regard to CU's 
misguided attempt to stop the 4/20 gathering, this is one of those times.

I have tried and failed to stop the crackdown via internal channels, 
so I'm going public with my reasoning.

The students participating in the 4/20 event are engaging in a 
grassroots non-violent act of civil disobedience to protest an 
immoral law. Laws against recreational marijuana use are immoral, 
because people who use marijuana aren't harming themselves, or 
others. Marijuana use is at least as safe as alcohol use. It's not 
the users but the government which is causing most of the harm, by 
unfairly punishing users.

There are problems associated with drug trafficking, but those 
problems only arise because marijuana is illegal.

Moreover, there is a long and admirable tradition of non-violent 
civil disobedience at college campuses in this country, from the 
protests in favor of civil rights laws to the protests against the 
Vietnam War. The 4/20 event should be seen in this vein.

Perhaps the 4/20 event is not very effective in implementing political goals.

To the extent that's the case, the solution is for us at CU to teach 
our students how to be more efficacious in their political activism.

Note that teaching political activism isn't just a liberal thing to 
do: one can be a political activist against gay marriage, or for 
banning abortion.

Moreover, legalizing marijuana is not a liberal vs. conservative 
issue: conservatives as diverse as William F. Buckley, Milton 
Friedman, and Pat Robertson have spoken out in favor of marijuana legalization.

What about safety issues?

Is it somehow unsafe to have a gathering of 10,000 people?

I've been to the 4/20 event multiple times (just to observe; I don't 
use marijuana), and it's always stuck me as a calm, peaceable event.

In fact, I've been surprised by how mellow it is (though I guess I 
shouldn't have been, for obvious reasons). The safety issue I'm 
concerned about is when the police start widely issuing citations to 
try to break up the event.

I expressed my concern to Jeff Lipton, the administrator who heads 
the committee to end the 4/20 event, and he told me that the police 
will only use force if they "feel threatened."

Of course, we saw what happened in the recent UC-Davis student 
protests: the police used pepper-spray on students, because the 
police said that they felt threatened, but it's clear that their 
feeling was unreasonable. Lipton told me that he will ensure that 
police (both CU police and the police from other agencies who will be 
brought in) will be told not to engage in heavy-handed policing. 
We'll see. The 4/20 event is safe; it's CU's misguided reaction to 
the event that makes me worried about safety.

A key reason that student government leaders gave for voting to push 
the 4/20 event off campus is that the event devalues a CU degree, 
because potential hirers might associate CU students with the degenerate event.

Well, in an October 2011 Gallup poll, 50 percent of respondents said 
marijuana use should be legalized, with only 46 percent saying that 
it should remain illegal.

Instead of trying to squelch the 4/20 event, CU could encourage 
students to spread the message that the point of the event isn't just 
revelry, but also to commit a non-violent act of civil disobedience 
against a law that most people think should be overturned.

What about the cost to the university, of $50,000 per year in extra 
staff and security?

Well, part of this money is spent because the university is trying to 
squelch the event.

Part of this money is being spent because the university is 
overreacting -- I've seen way more police at the 4/20 event than I 
have at other gatherings of over 10,000 people.

And part of this money is being spent as the price we should happily 
pay for living in a free society, where people have the right to 
peaceably assemble, and where large-scale non-violent civil 
disobedience is a legitimate method of protesting against immoral 
laws. At least, large-scale non-violent civil disobedience should be 
recognized as a legitimate method of protest.

It's disappointing to me that CU, by its actions, is complicit in 
enforcing the immoral status quo of our nation's oppressive marijuana laws.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom