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A few months after marijuana was decriminalized in Connecticut, students at the University of Connecticut have put forward a plan to knock down the penalties on campus. Not everyone was happy.
The student government meeting where the plan was approved 24-7 ended with overturned chairs and an argument that led to the police being called, reports UConn’s student newspaper.
That plan called for equal punishments for alcohol possession as marijuana possession by no longer requiring university employees to call the police when they discover a student is in possession of less than a half-ounce of marijuana.
Disciplinary standards for marijuana possession on campuses in Connecticut have remained largely untouched since this new law began. Possible sanctions for the possession or use of illegal drugs can still result in a student being suspended. This plan approved by UConn’s student government would need to be approved by the Board of Trustees before marijuana possession was decriminalized both criminally and academically.
Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.
