Cannabis and College
After Amendment 64 passed in Colorado Nov. 2012, which allowed for the legalization of cannabis in Colorado, the state was now faced with the task of determining how to regulate. Challenges were presented about how to control all the different moving parts that come along with it.
Challenges were also presented with the challenge of how to regulate on college campuses. Specifically with students who are legally of age to purchase and possess marijuana as far as state regulation is concerned.
Cannabis and DU
For the University of Denver current policy states under the Student Conduct website states:
Possession, use, manufacture, or distribution of any Federally Illegal Drug, or any possession or use of any prescription drug or other controlled substance except under the direction of a licensed physician. The manufacture or distribution of any drug is also prohibited, including Cannabis plants. Marijuana, including Medical Marijuana, is prohibited on campus regardless of age.
DU has to respect federal law, according to Sgt. James Johnston, Community Partnerships & Training Coordinator for the Department of Campus Safety (DCS), since DU has to follow Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (DFSCA) of 1989 which comes from the US Department of Education. Especially since DU receives federal financial aid.
“DU is obligated to follow federal law and guidance when it comes to all substances,” said Johnston.
Johnston also refers to page 11 of Amendment 64 which states that all private property owners also have the right to prohibit any us of cannabis products from the property that they control.
When it comes to recognizing and addressing incidents in resident halls is both a trained effort from DCS as well as resident assistants working through Housing and Residential Education (HRE).
“Drug-recognition for all types of narcotics is included in every officer’s initial training program which runs 3 months. The training is a combination of research and identification tactics from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the narcotics unit of the Denver Police Department (DPD). Using actual marijuana, they learn about how it looks to the eye,” said Johnston.
According to Johnston, DCS officers also learn about the various paraphernalia associated with cannabis use, and legal aspects on both a federal and local scale. Officers are also educated in how edibles are made and the smell of cannabis by use of synthetic incense. Training is run through the Marijuana Unit of DPD.
DCS also relies heavily on resident assistants (RA) to help to identify incidents of cannabis use on campus, according to Johnston.
“The vast majority of our marijuana cases take place in campus residence halls,” said Johnston, “Of these, around 87% of them are reported to us by Resident Assistants who have an obligation under Housing and Residential Education policy to notify us.”
After being notified of suspected cannabis use in resident halls officers respond to the location in question where they will confirm the presence of marijuana by smell. If there is reasonable suspicion of cannabis use, officers will knock on the door and speak to the residents, according to Johnston. If there is no answer DCS acquires permission from HRE to enter and conduct a search of the room in question.
DCS also has the ability to submit substances in question for lab testing if residents will not admit that the substance is cannabis.
Johnston does admit, however, that the number of reported drug related instances since legalization in 2014 has decreased by 69 percent for the time frame Jan.-Aug. 2015, compared to the same time frame for the previous year.
“We continue to work with the Health & Counseling Center as well as Student Conduct to better understand this trend. For now, we suspect that more students are choosing to consume their marijuana off-campus,” said Johnston.
University of Colorado Boulder Cannabis and Housing
University of Colorado Boulder (CU) usually requires freshman to live on campus. Since cannabis use is banned on campus, CU has offered students an exception of living on campus who use cannabis medically, according to The Denver Post.
In an article featured in The Daily Camera the spokesman of CU elaborated on the circumstances that can exempt to living on campus include: students who are married or who live with a parent or guardian, freshmen over 21 also are exempt.
However, the number of medical marijuana exemptions, which are lumped with other health and medical circumstances, has fluctuated every year since then with no apparent pattern. They represent less than one percent of the freshman class, according to The Daily Camera.
The exemption rule extending to cannabis use in 2008 in order to cover the legalization of medical cannabis use, according to a quote said by Paula Bland, resident director, that was featured in the article.
Oregon and Cannabis on Campus
In Oregon, colleges face the same challenges as other legalizing states. In order to be able to receive federal funding, colleges, both private and public, must have a drug-prevention program in place, according to Time Magazine.
Oregon State University (OSU) is attended by 29,576 students, according to their website. Administrators at OSU took preemptive action prior to legalization in Oregon about how to handle not only prohibiting cannabis possession and use but how to handle off-campus housing options as well, according to Time.
OSU extended their policies to off-campus fraternities and sororities prior to legalization. Before legalization in Oregon, administrators planned on looking to Colorado for guidance on how to handle legalization and college campuses, which took place in Colorado six month earlier.
Conclusion
Overall, legalization has not changed how colleges handle their policies in regards to the use of cannabis. Since colleges, private and public, accept federal funding, they are obligated to comply to federal laws and regulations regardless of state regulation. Legalization only presents a problem for college campuses when it comes to how to prevent its use and possession.
