The university won’t have anyone arrested for possession if he or she has legitimate papers, but the threat of MSU’s student judicial process still looms.

The reason this appears to be possible is because possession of medical marijuana is illegal under the federal law. MSU’s policy states,

“No student shall possess, use, manufacture, produce, sell, exchange or otherwise distribute any drug prohibited by federal or state laws.”

That means, even though it is legal at the state level, MSU can choose to apply the federal standard. This is where it gets cloudy: Although marijuana is not allowed on campus, using the judicial process for a patient taking their prescribed medical treatment seems wrong.

Would a student be disciplined if he or she was a patient prescribed Vicodin or Percocet? No, they wouldn’t.

Punishing someone for a legal medical treatment, whether it be smoking weed, shooting insulin or taking pain pills, doesn’t make any sense.
Let’s say a student is disciplined.

What will MSU say, “You’re not really in trouble, and you really didn’t do anything wrong. But, you’re here at your judicial meeting because … well, just because.”

Something about the policy needs to change to reflect the cultural stance toward marijuana. It would have been nice if MSU would have thought ahead and saw medical marijuana as a foreseeable issue.

Allowing exemptions to students who are medical marijuana patients would be a feasible alternative. This would allow them to carry and use medical marijuana without running afoul of the university.

There could, of course, be problems with privacy rights as they pertain to medical conditions. One should not be compelled — under the threat of punishment — to divulge medical conditions.

If that is the case, MSU seriously should look into amending the drug policy — it makes no sense to discipline students who aren’t doing anything illegal.

As it stands, MSU has offered one solution to students who are users of medical marijuana: Move off campus. The answer for those who do live on campus is to sneak around in order to receive legal, medical relief.

We all know it’s not hard to smoke marijuana on campus: There are a lot of open spaces and wooded areas that are hidden and cater to these activities.

But, when did it become OK to tell a patient he or she needs to go outside and hide in the woods to take their medicine?

Not acceptable.

It’s time MSU found a solution.