Cannabis controversies at the forefront of conversation
Sophomore Dan Cavins aims to educate
Dan Cabins
As the semester is coming to a close, Indiana sophomore Dan Cavins is preparing to serve as president of the registered student organization Student Advocates for Medical and Responsible Cannabis.
SAMRC's goal is to educate the student body on cannabis, its effects, the industry and its policies. The student organization partakes in advocacy and activism efforts against marijuana prohibition.
SAMRC played a large role in decriminalizing marijuana in Mount Pleasant. Through tabling, they were able to place the City of Mount Pleasant Marijuana Decriminalization Proposal on the November 4, 2014 ballot.
SAMRC has also pushed two bills through the Student Government Association House and Senate. The first bill, presented to SGA in the 2013-14 school year, called for penalties of being caught with marijuana in a residence hall to be decreased to match the penalties of being caught with alcohol in a residence hall.
The second bill called for medical amnesty for students who are medical marijuana patients and live on campus.
What are SAMRC's short term and long term goals?
CAVINS: SAMRC's current short term goals are to pass legislation through the SGA every year. Even if student conduct refuses to sign off on our bills, our goal is to make sure they know what the student body wants. Student conduct refused to sign our first bill, and we're expecting the same outcome for our second bill.
The main reason why the university won't pass the bills is because they can't condone something that violates federal law because they receive federal funding. We just want to keep the pressure on every single semester.
Statewide marijuana legalization in Michigan is our long-term goal. There are a lot of signatures to be gathered to even get it on the ballot in 2016. But for any movement, it starts from the grassroots.
How can students start participating in cannabis activism?
It (can be) hard to be up front with what you do, but it's important to encourage transparency. Being transparent means you have to be careful as an organization and how you choose to influence the students. People still have that pre-existing, innate stigma about cannabis that really disallows them to think about it in an objective way. What we want to do is start the conversation anyways and make them think about it.
Is SAMRC more focused on marijuana policy on a smaller level, such as on campus, or are you trying to push efforts to a city and state legislation level?
SAMRC's main function on campus is to simply educate the students and to spread awareness of the truth about cannabis and to start the conversation. That will continue to be our main goal, to serve as a resource for students. As for bigger plans, starting next semester we have a group of members that are going to be visiting other college campuses around the state to collect signatures to get statewide legalization on the ballot in 2016.
What got you interested in taking on political activism like this?
It was because this group is not like other groups. In our name, we directly advocate responsible cannabis use. I just really think the word "responsible" reflects our group as a whole. We try to reverse the stigma for people who smoke weed. Just because you use cannabis doesn't mean you're a "degenerate." You can still be a positive, impactful human being.
Are there any particular cannabis issues that you find you're most passionate about?
I would say I care the most about hemp. Hemp just goes to show that this movement is so much bigger than just "getting high." This is a human rights issue. It's an environmental issue. There are so many components that go into it. It's ridiculous that you can import and export hemp in this country, but you can't grow it because then you'd be growing cannabis. Hemp doesn't get you high. It's not psychoactive. Hemp does so much good. It's just outrageous that something so helpful, so beneficial, and something you can't get high on, is illegal in the United States when it could help us so much.
