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All the Marijuana News!

A News Clearinghouse for Marijuana, Hemp, Medical Marijuana Information!

This past weekend, the Associated Press ran a long-awaited story on the Marijuana Policy Project's high school recruitment program. This article has already appeared in "The Washington Times" and newspapers
from Maryland to California.
Of course, MPP does not encourage high school students -- or anyone, for that matter -- to use marijuana. But we do believe that people of all ages should help spread the word that marijuana prohibition causes
more harm than good.

In addition to the AP wire story and another article in "The Washington Times" on June 10, radio stations in Boston, Montana, and the District of Columbia have picked up the story.

Please contact MPP if you have any kids who are interested in volunteering and whose high schools require them to earn volunteer credits. Even if far from D.C., there is plenty of Internet and library work to be done, as well as local public education activities.

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Associated Press - June 26, 2000

STUDENTS VOLUNTEER ON BURNING ISSUE

By Sheila Hotchkin

    Maryland requires its high school students to do volunteer work
to graduate, but how the students donate their time is largely left
up to them.

    So two seniors at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda decided
to work for a cause they support: legalizing marijuana.

    Scarlett Swerdlow, 18, got permission from her high school last
semester to fulfill her service learning requirement by doing
clerical work and research for the Marijuana Policy Project. She later
was joined at the project's D.C. office by a classmate, 17-year-old
Keely Owens.

    "I think there's definitely irony, but it's good," Miss Swerdlow
said. "I think it's important that students and teachers realize
prohibition is really harmful."

    The Marijuana Policy Project says it now plans to seek volunteers
from other public high schools.

    "Now that Scarlett has jumped through the hoops herself and gotten
us approved as an allowable organization, we think it will be much
easier to reach hundreds of students in Montgomery County, if not
thousands of students nationwide," said the project's chief spokesman,
Chuck Thomas. "It's a win-win situation because either we get the
volunteer help or we sue the schools and get the attention."

    Miss Swerdlow, who went undefeated during her years on the
school's speech team, decided to volunteer for the project after
a speech she gave on marijuana law reform was criticized by contest
judges, who called the topic inappropriate.

    Mr. Thomas suggested she put her hours at the organization toward
her service learning requirement.

    "A lot of times, we just wait until a perfect opportunity comes
our way," said Mr. Thomas. He said people convicted of drug offenses
also have volunteered as part of their mandatory community service.

    Miss Swerdlow said she and her classmates were startled by how
easy it was to get permission from the school service learning
coordinator.

    "She just kind of looked at the form and said, 'Yeah, it's
approved,' " Miss Swerdlow said.

    Kathy McGuire, director for comprehensive pupil services for
Montgomery County Public Schools, said the Marijuana Policy Project is
not on the district's list of approved organizations, which includes
such organizations as the Alzheimer's Association, the Anacostia
Watershed Society and the Montgomery County public libraries.

    That means a school official and a parent must approve it for each
individual student, she said.

    "It may be something that is not my cup of tea, or what I think
the kids should be doing," Ms. McGuire said. "But the parents have
signed off on it."

    Miss Swerdlow's mother, Duchy Trachtenberg, said her daughter was
probably the perfect student to blaze that particular trail. The
teen-ager was in the top 5 percent of her class, and both she and
Keely Owens were national merit commended scholars.

    "I'm sure Scarlett had all the I's dotted and T's crossed," said
Mrs. Trachtenberg, a social worker who counsels adolescents. "It was
somewhat controversial, but she clearly believed in it. ... I think
it took a lot of courage and I think it's an educational opportunity."

    Maryland and the District both require public school students
to do community service for graduation. California is considering a
similar requirement, according to the Corporation for National
Service. At least a hundred school districts scattered throughout
nearly all 50 states have a service learning requirement.

    Miss Swerdlow and Keely Owens are not the first students to
stretch the requirement's boundaries.

    "Students have gotten credit for advocating that service learning
go away," said Luke Frazier, the director of the Maryland Student
Service Alliance, which is part of the state Department of Education.

    Several years ago, some Carroll County students met the
requirement by lobbying against service learning, Frazier said.

    About the same time, the Ayn Rand Institute argued in several
newspapers that service learning was involuntary servitude. The
Marina del Rey, Calif.-based organization encouraged students to
volunteer there as a protest against the requirement.

    "We believe that the individual is sacred, and he has the right
to life, liberty and the pursuit of his own happiness." said
Scott McConnell, communications director for Ayn Rand Institute.
Mr. McConnell said the institute usually has two or three volunteers
at any given time.

    "Personally, I would much rather support that kind of effort
simply because the legality issue of it," Mr. Frazier said. "The
[marijuana project] stands for the legalization of something that
is currently illegal."

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The Washington Times - Saturday, June 10, 2000, Page A8

SENIORS EARN CREDIT PUSHING POT REFORM
Sunday school teaching doesn't count

By Gerald Mizejewski

    Two Maryland high school seniors earned their mandatory community
service credit by fighting to reform the country's marijuana laws.

    Scarlett Swerdlow, 18, and Keely Owens, 17, both of Bethesda,
put in dozens of hours stuffing envelopes, organizing library
materials and ordering reports for the Capitol Hill-based Marijuana
Policy Project.

    The pair, who graduated from Walter Johnson High School on
Tuesday, helped "educate the public about the effects of our nation's
marijuana policies and the need for more reasonable, compassionate
alternatives," according to their student activity application form.

    "Me working here isn't about wanting to get high," Miss Swerdlow,
now a summer intern with the organization, said yesterday. "It's about
the damage the marijuana policies are doing."

    The Marijuana Policy Project, a nonprofit lobbying organization,
believes the United States should "allow responsible adults to
cultivate small amounts of marijuana in their homes," the group's
World Wide Web site says.

    Walter Johnson's service learning coordinator approved the
advocacy group without question or delay, Miss Swerdlow said. The
credit is needed to graduate.

    If the youths are advocating a position and learning about the
Democratic process it "is considered to be legitimate," said Kate
Harrison, a school system spokeswoman.

    Others consider it a bad idea.

    "My first response is, `What are the people at the school
smoking?' " said Janet Parshall of the Family Research Council and
host of a national radio program.

    Blair Ewing, a member of the Montgomery County Council who served
22 years on the school board, thinks students should help others at a
soup kitchen or homeless shelter.

    "My preference has always been that students work somewhere other
than a lobbying organization," he said.

    But a current school board member had no objections.

    "We may not agree with everything that kids advocate," said
Stephen N. Abrams, a member of the county school board. "I think you
have to look at the legitimacy of the organization."

    Chuck Thomas, a Marijuana Policy Project spokesman, insisted that
volunteering with his organization is no different than helping out
the National Rifle Association.

    "We're hoping next year we can get hundreds of students in
Montgomery County interested," he said.

    Student community service was approved by the Maryland Board of
Education in 1992 as a requirement for graduation from public high
school. The graduating class of 1997 was the first one to complete
the service requirement.

    Students must perform at least 75 hours of community service
except in Montgomery County, which requires students to take community
service classes and perform 60 hours of actual service.

    The Montgomery County Volunteer Center trains public agencies
and nonprofit organizations and recommends them to the public school
system. The marijuana group is not in its database.

    Ultimately, approval of a service project is granted by service-
learning coordinators in the high schools and a system official who
oversees them.

    Students in a Baltimore middle school earn credit by working as
hallway monitors. In Carroll and Cecil counties, students can fulfill
the mandate by participating in Scouts or 4-H clubs.

    Teaching Sunday school is not an acceptable way to earn volunteer
credit in Montgomery County public schools, said Mary Ruttkay of the
Walter Johnson PTA.

    Miss Swerdlow, a three-time county debate champion, got involved
with the marijuana topic this year after trying to find a
controversial issue for a speech competition.

    She was reprimanded by school officials for choosing marijuana
prohibition, but a coach encouraged her to stick with it. She went
on to win first place in a Montgomery County forensics contest in
March with a speech on marijuana law reform.

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HOW TO SUPPORT THE MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT

MPP is funded entirely by the contributions of its dues-paying members
nationwide. To support MPP's work and receive the quarterly
newsletter, "Marijuana Policy Report," please send $25.00 annual
membership dues to:

    Marijuana Policy Project (MPP)
    P.O. Box 77492
    Capitol Hill
    Washington, D.C. 20013
    202-232-0442   FAX

Because MPP devotes 100% of its efforts toward influencing public
policy, contributions are not tax-deductible. The following on-line
membership form allows you to make tax-deductible contributions:
<http://www.mpp.org/join-mpp.html>