When students pass by the several corkboard-covered walls scattered across campus, different flyers might catch their attention but none more so than one depicting a small stick figure reclining and smoking a joint.
The club that boasts this cartoon is the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws club or N.O.R.M.L. as they are commonly referred.
“Our primary goal is to spread correct information about marijuana and hemp to the students of Fresno State,” said 20-year-old club president Idell Tarver. “We also promote the organizations goals of [medicinal marijuana] use, industrial use and recreational use.”
According to their Web site, the club wants to create limitations for marijuana and hemp being that only adults can use it. Those who use it would not be able to drive after using, limits would be set, resist abuse, and they would have to respect the rights of others.
“In the upcoming weeks, we are having discussions of various topics relating to marijuana, our symposium series,” Tarver said.
The club also has a debate scheduled with a narcotics officer that they hope will happen on April 20 in the Free Speech Area.
The club is also getting involved with the community and plans to adopt a stretch of highway.
“We hope to adopt the two-mile stretch of [highway] 168 that runs westbound from the Bullard overpass. We would be cleaning that section of the highway once a month,” Tarver said. “This is a good opportunity to get the students of N.O.R.M.L to get involved with the community.”
The club has been keeping an eye on Fresno County’s crackdown of the medical marijuana dispensaries, which started in August when nine dispensaries were sued for zoning violations.
City Attorney Charlotte Hylton Knoczal headed the lawsuits. Knoczal stated that the dispensaries were illegal because they were not in the zones that were put forward for medical businesses and where marijuana had not been recognized as medicinal. Knoczal also said that the businesses were not “up front” with what they were selling.
“I do not think that they should shut down these businesses because they are not giving them a fair shot to get the businesses in order,” Tarver said. “And they should be helping them with education on business instead of suing them.”
Graduate student and club member Matthew Lance said, “I was initially concerned about people not being able to get their medication. But then I thought about other cases when the states took away the dispensaries. This city will be receiving less money when patients sue.”
The club may not be able to fight the lawsuits but they work on fighting misconceptions, including the biggest one: marijuana is a gateway drug.
“I think alcohol is more a gateway drug,” Tarver said. “Because it effects peoples decision making capabilities much more then marijuana does.”
N.O.R.M.L is open to any new members, and meetings are held at 5 p.m. on Wednesdays in Family Food and Sciences 216a.