Professor will smoke marijuana again

Julian Heicklen, professor emeritus of chemistry, sat down Thursday outside the University Gates and smoked what appeared to be a joint.

However, University Police Services Supervisor Stewart Neff said the substance lacked the distinct odor of marijuana and, therefore, was determined not to be marijuana. Neff said Heicklen's "cigarette" was not confiscated, nor was it tested.

University Police Services Supervisor Dwight Smith said Heicklen was not taken into custody because Heicklen was not smoking marijuana when the officers arrived at the scene. Police believed Heicklen was trying to make a political statement, Smith said.

It also would not have been in the community's best interest to arrest Heicklen, Smith said.

The decision not to arrest or charge Heicklen was not influenced by the crowd, the media or the fact that he was trying to make a political statement, Neff said.

But Ben Norman, president of the Penn State Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), said he believes the professor's status with the University and the presence of the media prevented an arrest.

"I think that if it was a student who was having a marijuana smoke-out, then they would have been taken away in cuffs," Norman said.

Director of Public Information Bill Mahon said the University will not take any action against Heicklen because he is retired and was not arrested.

Regardless, Heicklen stands by his claim; he said the substance he was smoking was indeed marijuana.

"I am sure that it was a marijuana cigarette," Heicklen said. "It would have been pointless not to have been. They used a very clever reason for not making the arrest."

Smoking the joint to protest the number of people arrested for drug law violations, Heicklen said he chose the University Gates because it is a place where many people -- especially students -- walk by.

Joseph Speakman (senior-earth science) said he didn't think it was fair Heicklen was not arrested for smoking marijuana.

"I think that if he doesn't get arrested for smoking marijuana, then no one should," Speakman said.

Wayne Osgood, professor of crime, law and justice, said he would not take a stand as Heicklen did, but that it is good when people stand up for a cause they believe in.

"People have to make their own choices about what they are going to have to make a stand about," he said. "I wouldn't make that one myself, but I am not going to throw any stones at him for making it either."

Although he said marijuana has medicinal benefits, Heicklen said his main cause is defending personal freedom.

However, Heicklen is not the first to protest in the State College area about the legalization of marijuana. Alan Gordon, to whom Heicklen is a scientific adviser, turned himself in six months ago after he was arrested for possession.

In July, the then 27-year-old Gordon voluntarily turned himself into a district justice following a misdemeanor arrest by the State College Police Department.

Four months later, Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar declined to prosecute Gordon on charges of possession of marijuana and paraphernalia because Gricar said Gordon was using his case as a "show trial" and a test case for legalizing marijuana. A trial would have allowed Gordon an outlet to express his political views on medicinal benefits of marijuana, Gricar said in November.

Planning to return with another marijuana cigarette, Heicklen said he will appear at noon on Jan. 29 at the University Gates, barring any unforeseen circumstances. He said he is trying to have a positive influence on University students.

"I think I'm setting a good example on telling them freedom is important," he said. "They're being tyrannized in this area."