Vice President Dana, Fried speak with Maine Public about marijuana legalization
Robert Dana, vice president for student life and dean of students at the University of Maine, and Amy Fried, a political science professor at UMaine, spoke with Maine Public for the report, “High stakes: College students could tip vote, but pot would likely still be banned on campuses.” Even though students tend to support marijuana legalization, they likely won’t see much of a difference on campus if Question 1 is approved, according to the report. To receive federal funds for financial aid and research, public universities need to follow the federal Drug Free Schools and Communities Act, which bans marijuana use, the report states. Dana said the federal laws play a role in keeping marijuana banned at UMaine, but for him, the bigger factor is the drug’s effect on academics. “In my history, not just as a dean but as somebody who studied drug use, marijuana became sort of conceptualized as a benign substance,” he said. “But we know it’s a psychoactive substance. And that used immoderately, it can hurt you. So for college campuses here and across the country, it’s one of those things that you don’t want to have corroding the academic enterprise. We’ve always spent time preventing its use. And taking a reasonably hard stand, saying, ‘You can’t do it here. It’s against the rules. It’s against the law.’” Fried said college students tend to head to the polls for presidential elections, and that should mean a boost for the legalization campaign. She compared this year’s marijuana initiative to Maine’s 2012 referendum on same-sex marriage, which passed by a six-percent margin, Maine Public reported. Shamus McManus, a UMaine student, was quoted in a Portland Press Herald article on the same topic.