{"id":4339,"date":"2016-10-25T19:25:03","date_gmt":"2016-10-26T03:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernjournal\/?p=4339"},"modified":"2026-04-14T19:25:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T03:25:22","slug":"marijuana-violations-getting-higher-on-westerns-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/marijuana-violations-getting-higher-on-westerns-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Marijuana violations getting higher on Western\u2019s campus"},"content":{"rendered":"
By: Jade Rayner\r\nNews Editor<\/pre>\n
There has been a lot of excitement following the approval of Measure 91 that legalized the use of marijuana recreationally for those 21 and over in Oregon beginning July 1, 2015. Although it\u2019s now legal in the state of Oregon, the use of marijuana in any form is strictly prohibited on Western\u2019s campus in accordance with the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. This restriction includes the use of medical marijuana. In order for Western Oregon University and its students to receive federal financial aid, including loans and grants it must comply with federal laws which deem marijuana illegal.<\/p>\n
Has the legalization of marijuana in Oregon had any effect on Western\u2019s campus? \u201cYes, I believe the number of violations are up due to the fact that people believe that is legal here at WOU, when in fact it is not,\u201d answered Rebecca Chiles, director of Campus Public Safety. According to reports from Campus Public Safety, there have been 27 marijuana violations recorded in the first four weeks of classes. The majority of violations took place in the residence halls, specifically Heritage, Landers and Ackerman. There has also been reoccurring activity in the parking lots, specifically Lot J. Public Safety takes violations of campus rules seriously.<\/p>\n
When called about a potential violation, \u201ca Public Safety officer will respond and get some information from the individuals. The officer will then either dispose of the marijuana if the person is under 21, or make the person take it off campus if they are 21 and older,\u201d reports Chiles. In addition, students caught with the substance will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct and an employee will be referred to Human Resources.
\nThis past year has brought on a lot of change with the new laws regarding the use of marijuana in Oregon. Using it publicly is against the law; if you can be seen smoking outside of your private residence, you are in public and should not be using marijuana. You must be at least 21 to be smoking recreationally. On-campus violations haven\u2019t been made strictly by those who are of age, Chiles added, \u201cWe are seeing the under 21 age group using marijuana which is illegal everywhere in Oregon.\u201d<\/p>\n
When questioning the details of Western Oregon University\u2019s rules about the use of marijuana medically or recreationally, Campus Public Safety stated that, \u201cthe only rule that students need to know is that marijuana is not allowed on-campus in any form, at any time, by any person.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Jade Rayner News Editor There has been a lot of excitement following the approval of Measure 91 that legalized the use of marijuana recreationally for those 21 and over in Oregon beginning July 1, 2015. Although it\u2019s now legal in the state of Oregon, the use of marijuana in any form is strictly prohibited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1652,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":"saragerrick","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1652"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25481,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339\/revisions\/25481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}