Marijuana organization resurfaces

Star Wars has returned to Happy Valley and so has the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. The only difference between the two returns is that NORML is now incarnating at the University for the fourth time.

Although the University was one of the first schools to get involved with NORML in the 1970s, when both the Drug War and Star Wars were younger, the local chapter disbanded three times when key officers graduated.

But President Ben Norman is ready to give Marijuana Day a rebirth in State College. Norman plans to restart the celebration -- traditionally held on September 26 -- next year.

However, the group's mission is not just about fun and games.

"We're going to try to stress the importance of registering to vote," said Matt Rummel, secretary of Penn State NORML.

Educating students about their legal rights and the medicinal uses of marijuana are among some of the major issues the group plans to deal with, Norman said. But for the rest of this semester, Norman said the main goal is to get organized for next year.

"(The current generation of college students) have been exposed to the most extreme Drug War measures and yet they're not curling up and hiding," said Chuck Thomas, former president of Penn State NORML. Thomas co-founded the University's chapter in 1990 with Rob Kampia, who also served as the organization's president and later as Undergraduate Student Government president.

Penn State NORML fell apart a year after Kampia graduated and joined forces once again with Thomas in Washington, D.C. The two have formed the Marijuana Policy Project there.

With some of Norman's goals, however, the University could see the same energy that existed in the early '90s. Norman is hoping to organize a three-day East Coast NORML conference next year, but he said the idea is still in the talking stage.

"People who are under 25 are in a unique position to advocate for change," said Allen St. Pierre, deputy national director of NORML, whose headquarters are located in Washington, D.C.

Of the 70 nationwide NORML chapters, 17 are at universities.

Activities organized by such organizations may not always be the most effective for change, however.

Some of the activities Thomas worked on, such as Marijuana Day, consumed a lot of the groups' energy and, while they were fun, Thomas said they did not directly address legislation.

"It's really preaching to the choir," he said.

Organizing letter-writing campaigns to legislators would be effective at a college campus where there are students from various districts, Thomas said.

On the local level, Rummel said the group also plans to deal with issues outside the realm of marijuana, such as certain policies of the State College Borough Council.