NJ marijuana legalization: Is legal weed, medical marijuana OK at NJ colleges?

Mike Davis | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption NJ marijuana legalization: Rutgers University student talks legal weed What will happen on college campuses such as Rutgers University if there's legal weed in New Jersey?

If New Jersey legalizes marijuana for recreational purposes, college students may be in for a bit of a bummer.

Thanks to the tricky relationship between universities and the federal government — which provides millions in funding — marijuana will likely remain contraband in the eyes of college officials, even if New Jersey marijuana legalization does come to pass.

"You have to do a gut check," said Jose Cardona, vice president for university relations at Rowan University. "What happens if we start allowing these things? Every college and university has federal money. And you can't really do it, because you might lose all your federal funds.

"The trade-off isn't worth it," he said.

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So what does that mean for college students?

While it would be legal for a 21-year-old to carry up to one ounce of marijuana on the street, a 21-year-old college student could still face severe penalties if a dormitory resident assistant or campus police officer catches them with weed.

Even if weed is legalized in New Jersey, users would still be prohibited from smoking in public. That means Rutgers University students could be arrested if caught smoking a joint on the walk back from another disappointing football loss — or even the occasional victory.

And colleges often have policies prohibiting the use or possession of medical marijuana, even if it's a card-carrying patient who picked up the products from a licensed New Jersey medical marijuana dispensary.

“That's totally fair for a university to do. It’s their rules and their regulations,” said 24-year-old Justin Jalla, a Rutgers University graduate student studying labor relations. Watch his comments in full in a video at the top of the page.

“They want to do what’s best for the people that attend their university. People from all over come here, and you don’t know if it might be cool with some people but not cool with other people.”

Rutgers University spokespersons declined to comment.

Monmouth University officials in West Long Branch declined to comment on any potential changes to campus policy "because there's no legislation to review," a spokesperson said.

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Crime and punishment

When a New Jersey college student is caught with marijuana on campus, it usually results in two phone calls — one to the university's student conduct office, and one to the campus police.

Many colleges and universities in New Jersey have a fully functioning police department, whose officers can arrest students and issue violations just like those employed by a municipality.

If a Monmouth University student is arrested by their campus police, they would face the same criminal charges and court dates as if a West Long Branch police officer arrested them.

Those arrests are on the upswing: The nearly 600 marijuana arrests made by campus police departments in 2016 is triple the number of arrests made in 2008, according to the FBI's Uniform Criminal Program, which has collected data from 14 New Jersey colleges and universities.

Nearly 84 percent of those arrests involved a suspect between 18 and 24 — compared with 48 percent statewide.

Racial demographics among college students arrested for marijuana possession are largely similar to statewide figures, with 58 percent of college arrests involving a white suspect and 34 percent involving black suspects. Statewide, white suspects make up 61 percent of arrests while blacks make up 36 percent.

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The biggest change among marijuana arrests at college campuses involve Asian suspects: They make up less than 2 percent of all marijuana arrests statewide, but nearly 7 percent of arrests among college students.

In addition to criminal charges, students also face academic penalties, which grow as the number offenses and amount of marijuana increases.

A first-time offender at Montclair State University will likely face probation and be required to report to drug abuse classes, said Karen Pennington, the school's vice president for student life and campus development.

University officials also look at various possibilities outside of simply breaking the rules — such as possible drug abuse or addiction issues.

"Each student is different. Each case is different and we try to do the best we can for the student," Pennington said. "We're concerned about whether this is a chronic issue or a problem for (other) students or if it's a first-time offense that would impact their ability to be a student."

Punishment also varies from campus to campus. Rowan University — with an undergraduate student body of over 14,000 — is "pretty strict," Cardona said. Arrest data show that Rowan University police make one marijuana arrest for every 103 students, a higher rate than Rutgers University and Montclair State University, both of which have more students on campus.

"We have the philosophy of, 'We told you. You were warned many times. You broke the rules, and there is a harsh penalty for it,'" Cardona said.

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Those penalties range from suspension to expulsion, in cases when a student is accused of drug dealing. Students can also be kicked out of university housing — without a refund — which is often more of a shock to their parents.

"Some parents are very liberal about the drinking habits of their children as well as their recreational use of (marijuana)," Cardona said. "So when the student gets kicked off campus, that's where we get into some friction.

"It's one thing if you live in South Jersey versus if you live out of state. It becomes a tension-filled conversation," he said.

But the long arm of campus law can only extend so far. About 2,000 Rowan University students live in off-campus housing that's not owned by the university, Cardona said.

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And while university police "have authority over off-campus activities, we don't have control unless it's something that comes to our attention," such as a sexual assault, Cardona said.

"If you live off-campus, you're off-campus," he said. "Even if there's underage drinking off-campus, we don't even know about it. It's not within our reach."

Campus life

But the legal status of marijuana — or lack thereof — has never kept the drug away from college campuses and students.

“People definitely brush it over their shoulder — at least my generation does. In this day and age, the recreational use of marijuana has been a bit more lax. People aren’t hush-hush about it,” said Jajalla, the Rutgers graduate student. “It exists and people aren’t ignorant to the fact that it’s around.”

Even though marijuana use is legal in Colorado, the University of Colorado prohibits marijuana on its campus and will penalize both the person caught in possession of the drug and anyone who "knew or reasonably should have known" about it, the university's website states. There are 29 recreational marijuana dispensaries in Boulder, home of the university's main campus.

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And the drug is still banned from the UCLA campus in California, another state with legal weed laws, despite over a dozen recreational marijuana dispensaries within a few miles. Even staff members conducting university business off-site are prohibited from using or possessing legal weed.

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Even without marijuana dispensaries, New Jersey college students recognize the presence of pot on campus.

An old meme on The College of New Jersey's forum on the social media site Reddit jokes that Centennial Hall, a dormitory, is "where the hallways smell like weed and the RAs don't matter."

A Rutgers Reddit feed is replete with tips on how to avoid getting busted by resident assistants or campus police, along with amateur legal advice on what to do if it happens.

“If people can do it without messing themselves up, I don’t see a problem with it,” Jajalla said.

Mike Davis; @byMikeDavis: 732-643-4223; mdavis@gannettnj.com