Our View

The staff editorial is the majority opinion of The Murray State News Editorial Board.

Over the past decade, America’s feelings toward the legalization of marijuana have dramatically shifted.

Public opinion on its medical benefits and economic value have resulted in people being more in favor of marijuana as a legal vice, and attitudes are more relaxed about people who smoke recreationally.

These ideas translate to students on Murray State’s campus, but many of them are not in compliance with University policy or the law. Calls regarding marijuana smoking in the residential colleges have become routine for Public Safety and Emergency Management and Murray State Police.

Because of the small rooms and shared ventilation systems, Residential Colleges are not the most ideal place to smoke. Students commonly make the mistake of trying to smoke and they are starting to get caught in higher volumes. This is inconsiderate to neighbors, who have to walk through the halls and smell the smoke.

For some, the smell is offensive. Deciding to light up in a residential college room compromises everyone else on the floor who is not smoking marijuana. The ventilation systems are uniform throughout the entire building, so smells can migrate to other floors. Murray State’s problems with marijuana violations on campus run parallel with the decision to make smoking cigarettes in restaurants illegal. Some people simply do not like to sit in secondhand smoke and should not have to. Can the same not be said about students living in the dorms?

To further conceal marijuana, residents have been known to take the batteries out of smoke detectors to prevent them from reacting to the smoke. Disabling a device that’s meant to protect us from fires is not only tampering with University property, but it also puts students in a bad position when a real hazard occurs.

It is also is a nuisance for resident advisers, who routinely have to confiscate marijuana and keep order on their floors.

The Murray State Police Department receives weekly calls from people complaining about marijuana being smelled in the residential colleges.

When students are caught with drugs in their rooms, officers have the discretion to give expensive citations, which could require multiple court dates and jail time.

The Drug-Free Campus/Drug-Free Workplace Policy states that the unlawful manufacture, distribution, dispensing, possession or use of controlled substances is prohibited in University buildings.

Murray State enforces these infractions along the Kentucky Revised Statutes, which considers the possession of marijuana as a class B misdemeanor.

It is up to us to decide if smoking marijuana in the comfort of residential college rooms is worth the legal trouble and the money we lose to our justice system.

Students are also subject to punishment from the Housing office and the head of the residential college. Multiple offenses can result in being kicked out while still having to pay housing fees.

No matter what the social attitudes of marijuana are changing to, the University still strictly upholds its policies and enforces Kentucky State Law on the legality of marijuana.

As college students, it is part of us to want to speak out against regulations that we don’t agree with. When a policy on campus upsets us, we protest and voice our concerns. However, we do need to stay within the scope of the law no matter where our personal beliefs about the legalization of marijuana may stand.

While smoking marijuana is now more socially acceptable than ever, it is common courtesy and an acknowledgement of the consequences that should stop us from partaking in University buildings.

It may be attractive for us to smoke marijuana in our room, but opportunities for trouble will come that placing a wet towel under the door or a dousing of Febreze cannot fix.