Green is the University’s favorite color. In more ways than one.
High Times, the national marijuana magazine, has named the University of Oregon as number four on its annual list of Top 10 Cannabis Colleges in America.
Colleges were chosen based on “top-notch academic programs, vibrant student life and easy availability of on-campus herb,” according to an August press release from High Times.
The 31-year-old magazine has published a Top 10 Cannabis Colleges list for the past four years. The list appears in the “Back to Buds” section of the October issue, which combines several articles and features aimed at students returning to school.
“We certainly get a lot of interest in the list, and I think people will consider this among other factors,” when choosing a school, High Times editor David Bienenstock said.
The article reads, “Situated in the city known as the capital of American anarchism, UO boasts easy access to both the Cascade Mountains and the Pacific Ocean – so you can tear down the system one minute, and then run off and get high with Mother Nature the next. What could be better?”
Bienenstock said, “We’re looking for academically good schools because that’s the main reason anyone wants to go to college.” He said he hopes to see a generation of “smart stoners” in order to “change these stupid laws,” referring to drug-control laws that make marijuana illegal.
“We certainly think marijuana should be legalized and that this war on drugs, as such, is a pathetic failure that ruins a lot of lives.”
High Times, which sells 206,000 issues every year, has no way of knowing exactly how many of its readers are college students, according to Bienenstock .
“We have a unique problem in determining our exact demographic because we have a readership that likes to keep their information to themselves for obvious reasons,” he said.
However, Bienenstock said students have always been a part of the quest for legalization because they make up a natural component of any “progressive cause.”
“(Students) have the time and the optimism and the energy to get involved in these types of things,” Bienenstock said. “They tend to be more willing to think freely and think for themselves.”
Bienenstock said critics of legalization want to deny people the right to make their own decisions.
College students are adults “old enough to go to Iraq and die for someone else’s mistake,” Bienenstock said, and they should make their own decisions on what types of plants they’re going to eat, smoke or grow.
“What we advocate is people making decisions for themselves based on the best available information, and there’s nothing dangerous about that,” Bienenstock said.
However, according to Tom Favreau, executive director of the University’s Substance Abuse Prevention Program, many college students do not have good information when it comes to marijuana use.
“That’s what I want to look at is both sides,” Favreau said. “I think that the atmosphere, at least what I see here on campus, is one of acceptance.” Favreau said many people try to minimize the effects of marijuana.
“I think that vast majority of students do not consider marijuana to be harmful, and that’s a huge problem,” Favreau said. “The fact is there are literally thousands of harmful chemicals and there are carcinogens.”
Even with a filtering system, there are still hundreds of harmful chemicals, Favreau said.
“They go off and try to compare it to other drugs,” Favreau said. “But that’s an attempt to say that it doesn’t hurt you and the fact is it does.”
Favreau said most users talk irreverently about the munchies or being more relaxed and creative, not realizing that these are only some of the side-effects of throwing the body’s brain chemistry out of its natural balance.
“Marijuana affects regions – very specific regions – of the brain, and that can cause serious problems.”
Specifically, marijuana affects regions of the brain associated with emotions and memory.
In addition to having unnatural effects on the brain, marijuana itself is not natural, Favreau said. Many users believe marijuana is a naturally occurring herb.
“That’s a lie,” Favreau said. “The stuff we have out there is not the natural, ancestral plant.”
According to Favreau, selective breeding and chemical processing over the years have led to much more potent strains of marijuana that produce high yield crops. They also intensify the harmful effects.
Most users “don’t have a clue what they’re putting into their body,” Favreau said.
“There are a lot of people that have misinformation and believe a myth,” Favreau said. “I think that’s sad.”
Because of this misinformation, many students are making poor decisions that lead to negative relational, legal and financial consequences, as well as negative health consequences, Favreau said.
“That’s where some real education needs to happen.”
Favreau pointed to the American Cancer Society’s efforts to educate the public on the dangers of second-hand and side-stream smoke. For many years, people believed that indirect exposure to smoke was perfectly healthy. It took many years and a lot of education to get the public to realize that second-hand smoke and side-stream smoke are dangerous, which is now generally accepted as common knowledge.
“I think the same needs to happen with drugs,” Favreau said. “It affects people in very different ways,” Favreau said. “It’s a real problem.”
Favreau and SAPP are working to educate University students on this issue. Recently, SAPP offered a full-term class titled Marijuana.
“Within a matter of a couple of weeks, the class was full,” Favreau said. “There’s a real interest in the topic.”
Medical marijuana Oregon is one of 10 states that have sanctioned marijuana for medical purposes.
“I think there’s a place for it medically,” Favreau said.
Numerous scientific studies have shown that THC is helpful in managing the symptoms of certain diseases, including AIDS Wasting Syndrome, according to Favreau.
However, “THC is already available in a pharmaceutical,” Favreau said. “A lot of people don’t know about it.”
Marinol, approved by the FDA for medical use and classified by the DEA as a Schedule III narcotic, contains THC in a capsule form.
“You could take an appropriate dose of Marinol and get the exact same relief,” Favreau said. “You get the exact same effects – you get high.”
Because THC is the only chemical in marijuana found to be useful medicinally, Marinol offers all of the benefits and few of the risks associated with marijuana, according to Favreau.
“Every major medical organization … categorically, across the board denounces crude marijuana as a medicine, including the World Health Organization,” Favreau said.
Also, physicians are able to better control the dosage when administering Marinol as opposed to marijuana.
Favreau said many users of marijuana are not as strictly interested in the health benefits of the drug as they may claim. Rather, they’re more interested in the social aspect of consuming marijuana, which is why many patients refuse to switch to Marinol, according to Favreau.
“It’s not as popular,” Favreau said.
Higher Education Act
One of the reasons High Times has a special section targeting college students in the October issue is to raise awareness about a provision in the Higher Education Act of 1998 that denies financial aid to students with a drug conviction.
“College students are blatantly being targeted in this war – needlessly,” Bienenstock said. “That just doesn’t make sense on the face of it.”
The magazine contains an article from a representative of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, a national organization working to have the drug provision overturned.
“It’s one of those laws that desperately needs changing, and there’s some momentum to do that,” Bienenstock said. “At every level of academia they’re recognizing
this for what it is.”
Favreau said taking away financial aid was probably not going to fix the problem of marijuana use among college students.
“I just don’t think the problem is going to go away,” Favreau said. “I am not convinced that that’s necessarily the answer.”
Excessive drug use often leads people to leave school for reasons not entirely financial, Favreau said.
ASUO President Adam Walsh also questioned the law’s effectiveness as a deterrent.
“How many people are going to know that’s a risk before they take it?” Walsh asked.
“I don’t think that denying financial aid to students because of a drug conviction – no matter how minor that may be – is reasonable, nor is it fair,” Walsh said.
Walsh pointed to the example of a student who makes one or two mistakes in high school and then is unable to get access to higher education because of a lack of financial aid.
“Most students can’t afford to go to school without financial aid or loans,” Walsh said. “It creates a serious access issue.”
When asked about student marijuana use in general, Walsh said: “Whether students are doing it or not, I don’t know if there are any visible effects of it on campus.”
Rather, Walsh said, the effects of methamphetamine use in the community at large are evident in incidents of people coming onto campus to steal bicycles in order to raise money for meth.
“It’s actually a pretty big deal,” Walsh said.
When asked whether he saw student momentum in support of legalization, Walsh said: “In the last election, we didn’t exactly see droves of students rallying around legalization of marijuana, among other issues.”

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