AgainstPROHIBITION, a student organization founded last fall, has pushed for national legislation that would change marijuana policy and has highlighted important figures like Steve Jobs and Shakespeare who used drugs. This year, members are already making plans for more acitivities, including hosting a marijuana legalization rally in October.
But the group’s founder, Brandon Lavy,said he doesn’t do drugs. Instead, he founded this group with the hopes of educating people about how the criminal justice system treats some drug users more harshly than others, as well as the unintended consequences of an outright ban on any substance.
The group is nonpartisan and doesn’t take policy positions as a whole.
“I’d say we’ve been able to bring more people together because we didn’t say, ‘you have to believe this to be in this group,’” Lavy said.
Most members believe in a difference between substance use and misuse, Lavy said, and members individually possess different opinions on what should be legalized. Around 500 people are subscribed to Against Prohibition’s listserv and up to 40 people attend the group’s regular meetings.
“Everyone thinks drug misuse is bad,” Lavy said. “‘Substance abuse’ has been used to describe all drug use, but most of our members think there is a proper medical use of at least marijuana.”
In addition to legalization efforts, the group also focuses on how current drug policy might prevent addicts or people who misuse drugs from seeking help because they fear legal consequences, Lavy said.
After widespread flooding in Louisiana last week, the group created a press release about how substance misuse might follow natural disasters and released a video discussing confidential substance abuse treatment options.
Senior Lauren Patin, a member of the group’s executive board, joined last year.
Patin said growing up she and her father discussed the failure of alcoholic prohibiton in the 1920s. She said she sees a similarity between alcoholic prohibition then and drug prohibition today and wonders why the United States thinks prohibition works for one but not the other.
She said she also believes in less government intrusion into people’s lives and likes that AgainstPROHIBITION focuses on informing people of facts surrounding drug use.
“We’re just trying to figure out solutions,” Patin said.
The group helped with voter registration for both Democrats and Republicans last year, Lavy said, because they believe the more people interested in drug policy reform that go to the polls, the higher the chance that drug reform policy is passed, regardless of party affiliation,.
AgainstPROHIBITION worked to promote a bipartisan U.S. Senate bill advocating for drug policy reform last year, and Lavy said the organization intends to amp up their lobbying this year. Lavy said the group also hopes to become involved with other groups at IU and in the Bloomington community.
“We’re hoping to bring a lot of different voices into the conversation about drug policy,” Lavy said. “We’re definitely looking to work with other groups that represent unique voices at IU.”
