Colorado-based Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) capitalized this year on the heightened attention paid to marijuana on April 20 (4/20).

SAFER worked with students at more than 40 universities, including a number of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) and campus NORML chapters, to spread the word on this celebratory day that marijuana is safer than alcohol and should be treated that way. Students wearing shirts reading “Cannabis” and “Can o’ beer” (with a check next to “Cannabis”) handed out hundreds of educational flyers to students on campus and at 4/20-related events, and the staff at SAFER worked with students to encourage and coordinate positive press coverage of the event.

SAFER has been working with college students across the country this past semester, and campus SAFER referenda and resolutions have been introduced at the George Washington University, Virginia Tech, the University of Arkansas, and the University of Washington. SAFER literature is also being distributed at a number of colleges and in a variety of cities nationwide.

Campus SAFER measures urge administrators to decrease university penalties for student cannabis use so that they are no harsher than those for student alcohol use.

The groups argue that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol to both the user and to society, thus there is absolutely no reason why universities should have policies that make drinking alcohol more attractive than using cannabis.

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism’s Task Force on College Drinking, alcohol use by college students contributes to an estimated 1,400 student deaths, 500,000 injuries and 70,000 cases of sexual assaults or date rapes each year. Every objective study of cannabis has found it to be less addictive, less toxic and less harmful to the body than alcohol. The US Centers for Disease Control report no annual deaths as the direct result of cannabis use, and there has never been a fatal marijuana overdose in history. Marijuana also does not contribute to violent or aggressive behavior, and mention of it is conspicuously absent from the literature on date rape and sexual assault.

SAFER hopes to maintain momentum heading into the summer, and the organization is currently considering prospects for citywide ballot initiatives for the fall.

For more information on SAFER or to get involved in your area, please visit http://www.SAFERchoice.org.