The Red and Black

Issue date: 4/22/09 Section: News

Media Credit: DANIEL SHIREY NORML logo on T-shirt [Click to enlarge]

KACZKOWSKI [Click to enlarge]

A University marijuana advocacy group's high hopes were snuffed out at a hearing Tuesday.

At a continuation of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws' University Judiciary hearing, NORML was found to have improperly used an image of the University's arch and failed to follow the instructions of University officials. The Judiciary panel put NORML on probation for two years and required the group to write an action plan ensuring violations do not occur again.

Wojciech Kaczkowski, a junior from Krakow, Poland, and NORML's president, said he was outraged by the decision.

"I just wasted my whole semester just to get something that was pretty much predetermined," he exclaimed after the hearing.

Members of the University Judiciary panel said they were unable to talk to The Red & Black until five days after the hearing, in case NORML decides to appeal.

Kaczkowski called the hearing a "mock trial" and pledged to appeal the decision.

"We're going to fight this as long as it takes," he said. "This is too harsh of a penalty for something like this."

For the appeal, the University chapter of the national organization hopes to gain backing from NORML's headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Before entering the judicial process, Kaczkowski said NORML was offered a plea bargain to agree the group was in violation of University policy and accept one year of probation.

"We're being singled out," he said. "Because we fought for these things, our penalty is even harsher."

Kaczkowski appeared confident before the verdict.

"When I was sitting at home listening to my iPod, Bob Marley came on, 'No Woman No Cry' - so everything is gonna be alright."

In his closing statement to the panel, Kaczkowski said that too harsh a sanction "would be ludicrous and controversial," and he hoped the conflict would be resolved "in a way that will satisfy both sides."

NORML argued the image of a bulldog smoking a joint on the steps of the arch - which appeared on the organization's Web site and fundraiser T-shirts - was the intellectual property of the artist.

"The image may be a parody, but it's not an infringement of the trademark of the University," Kaczkowski said in his closing statement.

Douglas Hennenfent, opinion writer for the panel, said he disagreed.

"The image of the arch used is a violation," he said in the panel's verdict.

Kaczkowski said he holds little hope for his appeal.

"If it we appealed to the University administration, I know we wouldn't get anything done," he said.

Still, Kaczkowski said he felt it important for NORML to appeal the decision as a matter of principle.

If NORML is found in violation of another University policy during the two years of its probation, the group faces suspension as a University organization.

Waites Laseter, vice president of NORML, said, "If they kicked us off campus, it wouldn't really do anything." He explained that because NORML is a national organization, the University chapter would simply change to the Athens chapter.

Kaczkowski said now that the hearing is over, NORML will focus more on petitioning to put a proposition to decriminalize holding less than seven grams of marijuana on Athens' ballot in 2010. Since the petition was started on April 20 last year, Kaczkowski said the organization has reached between 2,500 to 3,000 of the 6,000 necessary signatures.

"We're definitely picking up speed with that," he said.

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