By Ryan Broderick, Editor-in-Chief
[NAMES WITH AN ASTERISK HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PRESERVE ANONYMITY]
Steven, The Medical Marijuana Patient
Steven* asks if it's okay to light up a joint before the interview starts. "…Long day and I just really need to blaze," he says pulling out a tiny blowtorch, lighting the end of a thinly rolled tube of paper filled with weed. Around his room are tiny pieces of paraphernalia and tools for grinding and smoking weed. Smoke slides out of his nostrils and mouth in little gray puffs as he talks.
Steven is a medical marijuana patient in his home state of California. But he is also a Hofstra University student, living off-campus in New York, a state that doesn't offer medicinal cannabis as a medical option.
"I'm prescribed Adderall and the side effects are you can't eat, can't sleep, which are, you know, the side effects of marijuana to oppose that," he says of his prescription. He says the weed helps him eat and fall asleep at night after taking Adderall in the morning. He also says he loves the ability to come back after a long day of classes and calm down.
Steven didn't always live off-campus.
When Steven first came to Hofstra as a freshman three years ago, he lived on campus in the Colonial Square residence halls. He already had his medical marijuana card.
"It was a weird transition because when I got my card I was living in a house with two friends of mine in San Diego for a summer, so it was a weird transition going from the house to the dorm anyways, but also not being able to smoke privately and legally was weird, but it didn't stop me, I still medicated," Steven says.
While living on-campus he always tried hard to never smoke in his room, instead opting for the intramural fields or a parked car when it was too cold.
"It sucked. I really enjoy smoking inside and privately," he says. "Most people knew I was a patient, though," he says of living in Colonial Square. "My [Resident Assistants] knew I was a patient and would never give me crap about it. They knew about it. I didn't hide it very well," he says laughing about always walking into the building reeking of smoke.
"You respect what I do, if I respect where you are, what you're doing," he says of RAs that turned a blind eye to his on-campus medicating.
Peter, The Long Time Smoker
A graduate student, Peter*, who has been here since he was a freshman, remembers a time when you could feasibly get away with smoking in the residence halls. "I used to smoke weed in the room. When we first got here it was like a year or two after people could smoke weed in their rooms," Peter says.
"Once we got caught in the room a couple times, we started smoking in cars," he says of when The University instituted a no smoking policy.
Peter's experiences in smoking outside were dealt with quietly, similar to Steven's RAs when he was a freshman.
"Straight up, you can just sit in your car anywhere and smoke weed and Public Safety will not bother you," Peter says with a gleeful smile. "I've never heard of them knocking on somebody's window. I've made eye-contact with them as they walk by and I'm hitting a blunt."
The Field
Steven and Peter both laugh and smile when asked about a fixture at The University that students casually refer to as "The Field."
"I love the field, the field is great place to smoke, it's a great way to meet people, it is a great way to randomly run into people you haven't seen in a while," Steven says. "You just kind of go out there and there's nothing around you but your friends."
One of Steven's favorite memories of Hofstra took place on The University's intramural fields.
"420 last year (April 20, 2010) at midnight sitting on the field and just watching flickering lights all around the field, just the swarm of flickering lights… of lighters obviously," he says.
Peter remembers when "The Field" was "The Bench."
"The Bench – it used to be called The Bench – there was a picnic table out in the intramural fields right by that scoreboard. I would go there by myself with like a pack of cigarettes and a [Dutch Masters cigar] and there would be people there that were like ‘yo, I'll throw down on a blunt.' Like 15 kids at a time sitting there," Peter says. "Nowadays there's no bench, but it's got the same flavor, you can go there and do anything you want, I've personally been told by Public Safety, one time they found us smoking on-campus and they were like ‘why don't you just go over to the fields and smoke?'"
Nathan, The RA
Nathan*, an active Resident Assistant (RA) knows about the blind-eye sometimes taken to students who violate The University's marijuana policy. He also knows that sometimes what RAs are supposed to do isn't always what's enforced.
"We're supposed to bang on your door and call Public Safety because we're not supposed to touch any sort of paraphernalia. You'd get fired essentially," Nathan says.
In reality though, most RAs don't feel the need to take disciplinary action on students caught smoking or possessing marijuana, according to Nathan.
"We don't do our jobs anymore because it's gotten to the point where the amount of people in housing is so low that there have been cases where people have been written up 17 times and not had a thing done to them because they're too afraid to kick people off campus because they'll lose more money," Nathan says.
The Unspoken Rule
Both Steven and Peter also agree that both the RAs and Public Safety follow an unspoken rule with students that violate University drug policy.
"People from the age of 16 to 23… I mean, they've either smoked pot or… uh, they've smoked pot," Steven jokes.
"So like it just gives a safe haven where kids aren't going to get screwed up with the law which then can affect a career. Hofstra's building careers and by giving them a safe environment they're helping them build a career," Steven says.
Peter thinks that the discreet methods Public Safety takes are as realistic as they can be under current state laws.
"I honestly like the system they got going. If they find you with weed they have to get you in trouble but they obviously have designated places where you're allowed to smoke weed and like that's about the best they can do because it's not legal but it's not like cocaine or anything," Peter says.
This year New Jersey's legislature approved a law, legalizing marijuana for medical use. It's the 14th state that has done so, bringing up questions of marijuana legislation to be looked at in New York, with dispensaries so close to the south.
Dean of Students Peter Libman says that students with medical marijuana cards are still a rarity.
"In my [four year] tenure it hasn't come up before, no," Libman says.
Nurse Lori Marziliano of The University's Wellness Center finds medical marijuana equally rare on campus, "It's never been brought up to me personally."
Public Safety, as of press time, chose not to speak with The Chronicle.
Nathan, the RA, believes that it's not a simple matter of turning a blind-eye all the time, "Zero tolerance puts everyone in fear, most schools that do it when they find you you're done. But our system doesn't work either."
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Many University students feel as though Hofstra’s Public Safety quietly condones marijuana use on campus . (Sean M. Gates/The Chronicle)