Marijuana could be legalized Tuesday, but students still might not be able to consume the drug on campus.
If marijuana becomes legalized Tuesday, Ohio University students might still have a hard time finding a place to use it.
If passed, Issue 3 would legalize marijuana for medical and recreational purposes for people over 21, but it is unlikely that the university will change its policy to allow marijuana consumption on campus, Don Wirtshafter, a local lawyer and marijuana advocate, said.
“The real question is how will ‘judiciaries,’ or the Office of Community Standards, deal with students who are charged with violating the code of student conduct by smoking pot,” Pat McGee, managing attorney for the Center for Student Legal Services, said in an email. “If it's legal it still may be a violation of the code.”
Issue 3 is already under legal threat by Issue 2, which aims to prevent monopolies in the state.
Some critics of Issue 3 have said since production of the drug will be limited to 10 investors, it would essentially create a monopoly on the drug. If both issues pass, it could lead to a legal battle in the state.
One factor standing in the way of marijuana consumption on campus is the $17.1 million in federal money OU received for 2016.
Wirtshafter said since marijuana is still considered a Schedule 1 drug federally — meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no known medical use — the university could potentially lose some of that money if it allows marijuana to be consumed on campus.
“Nothing about Issue 3 changes federal law,” Wirtshafter said.
Dan Pittman, spokesman for the university, said he could not say for sure whether the university would change its policy if Issue 3 passes.
“It’s tough to speculate. However, if Issue 3 were to pass, the university would review all available information regarding how this new state law would interact with federal law,” he said.
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But Wirtshafter said he doesn’t expect the university’s policy to change.
“I expect the university will continue its policy disallowing any smoking,” he said. “They could allow it to be smoked if they wanted to take a risk of having a federal agency withholding funding.”
Faith Oltman, spokeswoman for ResponsibleOhio, the group behind Issue 3, said she wouldn’t be surprised if marijuana was still prohibited on college campuses.
She said because the bill only protects private marijuana consumption, there wouldn’t be very many places on a college campus where marijuana use would have been possible anyway.
“You can think of this more like alcohol consumption rather than tobacco consumption,” Oltman said. “People aren’t going to be smoking marijuana in public.”
Chrissy Schirtzinger, a sophomore studying marine biology, said it's fair to prohibit marijuana use on campus, but she doesn’t think it will have much of an impact anyway.
“What’s the worst that they’re going to do? Like, give them a slap on the wrist?” she said. “It’s a known thing (that people smoke marijuana on campus). There are a lot of hippies on campus.”
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