MONDAY,MAY 5,2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN - 5A
March promotes marijuana usage
By Eddie Yang
eyang@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
As on most Saturday nights drivers cruising on Massachusetts Street last Saturday were encouraged to honk for cannabis.
But this time, the message was less about "honking for hemp" and more about the medicinal and recreational uses of the leafy plant.
A group of about 55 people gathered to show support for legalizing marijuana as part of the international "Cannabis Liberation Day."
The event, sponsored by the Students for Sensible Drug Policies, was one of several such events around the world. Cities such as Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Rome, Tokyo, New York, Moscow and Mexico City hosted similar marches that usually
occur on the first Saturday of May. This was the first time that Lawrence hosted the 'Million Marijuana March.'
"It's a beautiful day to come together to show that many kinds of people smoke marijuana," said Chase Cookson, president of the Students for Sensible Drug Policies. "We want to dispel the negative stigma associated with marijuana."
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Matt Beamer, St. Louis, Mo., senior, said he thought the march was necessary to bring awareness of legalized marijuana to the public.
"I think the government wastes a lot of money and a lot of time with the drug war," Beamer said. "We want to get people talking about it and get people comfortable with marijuana."
The supporters began the evening at 6 p.m. by holding up signs on the side of Massachusetts Street with slogans such as 'Free the Weed', 'Keep your laws off my bong' and 'Smoking pot is American.'
Beamer said he believed the government should move toward legalizing marijuana for medicinal uses.
At 7 p.m., the group marched down the street shouting protests against the drug war, with two police officers following. The group encountered five more officers when it passed a small group of veterans supporting the war in Iraq.
Some passing motorists honked their horns, held up their thumbs or smiled to show their support, drawing cheers from the supporters.
"Seventy percent of troops in Vietnam smoked marijuana," said a supporter with a "Responsible people smoke pot' sign.
"That's a bunch of bull honky," said one of the veterans as the group passed.
The march continued down to Sixth Street, where the group crossed the street and walked back down Massachusetts Street.
Shop owners and bystanders stood and watched as the group passed by.
Andrew Jacobsen, Overland Park resident, said the march was a good start.
"I went to school in Madison where there was so many people in the march that you could see people smoking joints on the steps to capitol, and the cops didn't do anything," Jacobsen said. "This is smaller, but it is a good start."
After the march ended, the students gathered back at South Park.
"We've proved that we can peel ourselves off of the couch!" Cookson said.
Gambling proposals considered
- Edited by Anne Mantey
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — Legislation authorizing more gambling in Kansas received a fresh airing before a Senate committee on Saturday, but there were no signs that the chamber was warming to the idea.
Proposed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as a way to raise revenue, expanded gambling never received Senate debate during the regular legislative session.
The chamber's Republican leaders have not committed to allowing a vote during the wrap-up session, which was in its fourth day Saturday.
But the Senate Federal and State Affairs Committee did receive a briefing Saturday morning on two gambling bills, one of which was passed by the House the previous day on a 66-58 vote.
The Senate committee took no action on either bill.
Although differing in key aspects, both bills provide for the Kansas Lottery to oversee the operation of slot machines and other electronic gambling devices, and for the state to share the profits from the new gambling.
Non-traditional ballots faulty in Senate election
By Cate Batchelder
cbatchelder@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
The Student Senate elections have been over for almost a month and still a bad residue resides in the mouths of nontraditional students and senators—winning and losing.
The election results weren't the culprit; it was the ballots themselves.
Many non-traditional students — the number is still unknown — and two senators running for candidacy weren't able to vote using the non-traditional ballot.
Administrators, senators and students cannot pinpoint the reason for the mishap, but they have ideas.
Melinda Bretthauer, Lawrence senior and non-traditional senator, blames the new software, PeopleSoft, used by administration for online services.
The software doesn't include the option to track parental status.
Bretthauer is single and has a child. Jaered Long, 4, but she wasn't listed as a non-traditional student. She checked her
non-traditional status before election day and falsely changed her student information to married so she could vote for herself.
"It's almost comical that in the 21st century the record keeping says you're either married or unmarried, have children or don't have children, like it's not acceptable to be single and have children according to the software," Brettthauer said.
Aaron Brown, academic computing programmer who developed the online voting software, said PeopleSoft wasn't to blame if students didn't receive the non-traditional ballot.
He used students' status information based on the Student Record Information System, the old software program being phased out by PeopleSoft.
Brown said the problem could be that non-traditional students weren't originally listed in SRIS correctly.
Richard Morrell, registrar, said the move to PeopleSoft from SRIS was to upgrade and serve the needs of improved online services such as online enrollment.
Aaron Brown Academic computer programmer and online voting software developer
"The difficulty is it's never going to be tailored to what you need."
The software didn't include the feature to track parental status when the University of Kansas bought it.
"It's a delivered product like when you go buy a car," he said. "You get what's in the car."
Even though PeopleSoft didn't affect the election outcome this year, it could next year when it is completely phased in at the University.
Morrell said administrators were looking into changing the PeopleSoft system to track parental status for non-traditional students.
Brown said incorporating new software systems was a common problem.
"The difficulty is it's never going to be tailored to what you need," he said.
- Edited by Anne Mantey
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