A sledgehammer arcs through the air and sets off a cold, glittering symphony of broken glass that echoes from 28 West to the Grove. Fragments of pipes and bongs that students have used to smoke marijuana coat the inside of a taped-up cardboard box, which a Community Safety Officer promptly tosses into a dumpster. The sledgehammer, named “Thor,” has smashed hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of glassware in these monthly rituals over the years, and it will smash thousands more even if Oregon votes to legalize recreational marijuana when voting ends this week.
Community Safety logged 453 incidents of evidence of drug use in the 2013-2014 school year, and Director of Community Safety Gary Granger says over 90 percent, or over 400, of those incidents are marijuana-related. Most of them are simply reports from CSOs that have encountered the smell of marijuana somewhere on campus. During the same school year, CSOs issued 124 marijuana-related AOD violations, more than the 116 they issued for alcohol violations.
No matter the outcome of next week’s vote, those facts won’t change.
If Oregon voters do pass Measure 91 and legalize marijuana—the race is close: an Oregonian Oct. 26-27 poll found 44 percent of voters in favor and 46 percent against—two legal obstacles will prevent colleges and universities in the state from weakening their anti-drug policies.
The first lies in the language of Measure 91 itself. The initiative would ban the use of marijuana in public places, which it defines as places “to which the general public has access,” including, “but not limited to,” schools. Granger and Dean of Students Mike Brody say that Reed falls well within the initiative’s definition of a public place.
“While some have argued that higher education should be considered separate from K-12 in this regard,” Brody says, “I would not assume this to be the case unless/until we had clear guidance from the state.”
Federal law would pose the second obstacle to Reed loosening its AOD policy. Marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, and colleges and universities have to comply with federal law or risk losing funding. If Reed were to silence Thor and weaken its policy toward marijuana, the college would stand to lose millions of dollars in federal financial aid funds for Reed students.
Even if a CSO found a 21-year-old Reedie in possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, the possession of which would be legal on campus under Measure 91, they would have to confiscate it in order to comply with federal law. The same goes for all of Thor’s future victims.
Though Reed’s policies won’t change if Measure 91 passes, students’ behavior very well may. “I think if it becomes legal it would change the dynamic of the conversation in certain ways,” Granger says. “It’s impossible to predict. There will be unintended consequences.”
In the Core Alcohol and Drug survey issued to incoming Reed freshman in the 2013-2014 school year, 44 percent of the class of 2018 said they had smoked marijuana, up from 42.6 percent of the class of 2017 but down from a six-year maximum of 46.6 percent.
One anonymous student, who explains, “I smoke a lot of weed,” doesn’t think Reedies will change their behavior if Oregon legalizes marijuana. “I feel like Reed is such a bubble of a community that legalization won’t have an effect,” she says. “It’s so readily available. You can get it on the front lawn.” Students, she argues, probably won’t bother to leave campus to smoke just because they might not get in trouble. “No one’s going to make that trek, be like, ‘It’s more legal.’”
While smoking on campus might be a moot point, changing prices could affect student purchasing behavior. The Oregon Legislative Revenue Office estimates that the initial price of legal marijuana would be $330 an ounce, more than twice Reed’s going rate, which the above student estimates to be $140 an ounce. But the price of legal marijuana would likely fall, and that could reduce the scale of the black market.
Mark Kleiman, UCLA professor of public policy and the state of Washington’s top marijuana policy consultant, wrote in a blog post that Oregon’s proposed tax of $35 an ounce would be so low that the price of legal marijuana would drop “way below” the black-market price “within a couple of years.” The state legislature would be able to adjust this price to compensate for inexpensive marijuana, an outcome analysts like Kleiman fear could lead to a surge in use.
In Colorado, which legalized recreational marijuana in 2013, the black market still thrives. There, according to Newshour, the going black-market rate for marijuana as of September was as low as $180 an ounce, versus $240 an ounce for legal marijuana. The difference in price is largely attributable to the state sales and marijuana tax.
Of course, underage Reed students wouldn’t be able to buy marijuana legally, no matter the price. Illicit marijuana exchange is likely to continue for the foreseeable future even if the black market dwindles into a series of informal swaps, like what occurs when underage students get of-age students to buy them alcohol. How exactly the black market will change remains unclear.
The federal government’s stance on college marijuana policy is also murky.
The Justice Department issued a memorandum in 2013 stating that enforcement of federal marijuana laws was not a priority, but that doesn’t mean colleges and universities in states that have legalized marijuana are off the hook. In 2011, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Department of Education jointly wrote a letter warning colleges that their federal funding would be at risk if they did not abide by federal law.
Brody says that he will ask the federal government for clarification if Measure 91 passes. “In the event that Oregon legalizes marijuana in November, I intend to draft a letter immediately thereafter to the Departments of Education and Justice, asking them to clarify their stance toward marijuana law enforcement on campus, both in terms of criminal law as well as the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act,” he says.
Brody says he would share his letter and the government’s response in order “develop a shared understanding” with the Reed community. “Based on this shared understanding,” he says, “I hope we can work together to come up with a plan that complies with the law, makes sense for Reed in terms of our policies and the honor principle, and most importantly, keeps Reed safe and focused on our educational mission.”
The Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988 and the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1989 both require that colleges and universities enforce policies in accordance with federal anti-drug laws or lose federal funding.