k(No)w Your (Rights)?
Published April 17, 2007
By Nate Bradbury
April 20th, sometimes referred to as 4/20 or 4:20, is rapidly approaching UVM. For some, this Friday will be just another day of classes. For others, April 20th has become what the Partnership for exactly 420 pounds of marijuana would be fatal?
Clearly, those myths are unrealistic, if not totally amusing. In reality, the phrase 4:20 – and subsequently the 4/20 celebration that emerged – originated with a group of Marin County, CA high school students whose daily ritual was to smoke pot after school at 4:20 pm in the early 1970s.
The phrase’s connotation and day-long celebration did not become the phenomenon that it is today until 1990 when it caught on with a large following of the Grateful Dead at a concert.
Aside from the rampant speculation regarding the origins and celebration of the holiday, we as students and American citizens should be aware of this day for other, dare I say, more important reasons.
American society and the United States government have battled drug-use since the late 19th century. Beginning with the Opium Wars in China, and progressing through prohibition of alcohol in the early 20th century, different drugs and substances have been severely maligned.
In the wake of 9/11, the Office for National Drug Control Policy has intertwined the “War on Drugs” (coined by President Nixon in the late 1970s) with the “War on Terrorism.” Their new tactic attempts to equate drug-use with monetary support of terrorist regimes.
Over the past five years, our government has appropriated more than $1 billion for its anti-drug crusade. This allocation of tax-payer dollars has brought us slogans like Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign and more recently, the DARE program.
In light of this large expenditure, one would expect the issue of drug use – particularly marijuana – to be the subject of intense scrutiny and public debate.
Surprisingly, there is not much of either. When it comes to the First Amendment – our right to free speech – the government, as well as UVM, seems unwilling to allow truly free speech and/or protest in public forums.
According to Hardy Machia – head of the local branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) – state and federal authorities are obviously “afraid to debate the real issues” surrounding the criminalization of marijuana in the United States.
At UVM in particular, public protests or gatherings that involve any mention of or association with marijuana are strictly taboo. Despite UVM’s Freedom of Expression and Dissent policy proclaiming that “Becoming a member of the University community in no way abrogates or compromises the rights which the Constitution of the United States guarantees to all persons,” this does not seem to be the case.
It is exceedingly difficult to get permission to organize events on April 20th. While the administration’s fear of association with “pot culture” is understandable, it is unacceptable to transform the campus into a watered-down version of a police state.
Travis Fryer, president of Students for Sustainable Drug Policy (SSDP), worked with others to co-sponsor a completely substance-free live music festival for this year’s 4/20; however, the university denied their application because the school-required security officials would be unavailable.
These security officers had already been assigned to patrol the open spaces on campus in an attempt to disperse any and all groups that form on UVM’s greens. According to Fryer, it seems that UVM students have significantly, “fewer rights than normal,” in regard to protests.
I would like to be able to enumerate the specific rights that UVM students have to make themselves heard on 4/20 but that list is too short to merit description. Even if you seek to protest, “With your voice instead of your lighters,” be prepared to have it quickly suppressed and your feet hustled off the greens next Friday.
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