Editorial:
Skidmore College and 4-20

By Barbara Lombardo

Published: Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The Saratogian

Last year, The Saratogian checked out what was happening at Skidmore College on "4-20," a national event "celebrated" primarily on college campuses by smoking pot out in the open with impunity. The doings at Skidmore were mild, especially compared to some other big schools elsewhere.

But it was still a story -- and the giant octopus bong made for memorable pictures. How much of a story was open for debate, and there was plenty of that. Some readers were appalled that such a thing occurred, while others found it laughable that college kids smoking pot was considered news. Still others condemned The Saratogian for being party-poopers and for letting a minority of students cast Skidmore in a negative light.

The same divergence of opinions exists a year later, though in recent months people across the country are increasingly willing to accept the concept of legalizing marijuana for medical uses.

Anyway, we revisited the Saratoga Springs college's campus at 4:20 on 4-20 and found, well, just a bunch of kids sitting around. It's the kind of follow-up you really have to do after having played it on the front page the year before.

This year, students were on notice from the college that an outdoor pot party would not be well-received. No tents or other enclosures were allowed on the lawn. So whatever pot smoking was going on that day wasn't happening then and there.

Who knows, some day it may become a legal recreational drug. Maybe.

Some comments on the saratogian.com story likened "protesting" the illegality of pot by smoking it out in the open to the civil disobedience of Rosa Parks. No matter what you think of the legalization of marijuana, the civil rights movements and Rosa Parks should not be trivialized by such a silly comparison.