Though toking up without a prescription isn’t lawful across the country yet, drug reform proponents on campus say the defeat of California’s Proposition 19 doesn’t mark the end of what they say is an inevitable march toward legalization.
On Tuesday, citizens of the state of California rejected an effort legalize and tax marijuana, which would have allowed adults 21 and older to purchase the drug for recreational use.
“I wasn’t very surprised,” said James Boggie, a junior in the College of the Arts of Sciences and the director of city affairs in the Boston University student union. “But a lot of students supported the proposition. I’m not sure what kind of reaction we should expect, but we’re in Massachusetts, and the proposition was in California, so there’s not much that can be done about it anyway.”
Organizations on campus, most notably Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, made significant efforts to try to get the proposition passed, including working with lawyers and directly calling California voters.
They said their general frustration was with the registered voters who didn’t vote.
“I was really disappointed,” said Katharine Mackey, a sophomore in the College of Arts and sciences and president of SSDP. “I feel like our generation are much less active, and the older voters who are against the legalization of marijuana are much more active, and were the ones that got out there and voted.”
Shelley Hoblit, a sophomore and e-board member for both the SSDP and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), agreed.
“I’m disappointed in the low turnout of student voters,” she said. “But we can learn from the failure of this, and make sure that next time, it’s more publicized.”
There were some students who were content with the rejection of the proposition, claiming moral reasons or that the legalization could endanger or hinder society.
“Scientifically, I don’t know if it’s a gateway drug to more dangerous things,” said Will Carberry, a freshman at the College of Arts and Sciences. “But internationally, and especially in American society, it serves as a way to start crime. It’s the type of commodity that is fought over violently.”
For now, legal marijuana use will have to remain restricted to medical use in 14 states.
Students remain optimistic about the future of recreational marijuana use.
“I’m confident it will be legalized in the future,” said Hoblit. “We lost the battle, but we didn’t lose the war.”
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