Last Tuesday I did my civic duty and participated in that great ritual of American democracy, Election Day, and I have the sticker to prove it. When the dust settled, along with all the mayoral candidates and library levies, among the results was the defeat of Issue 3, which would have legalized marijuana in the state of Ohio. So suspicious odor calls, like excessive drinking calls, will continue to be part of Case Western Reserve University Police Department’s weekend routine for the foreseeable future.

This article is not intended to be a debate on marijuana use, but rather to focus on the law and the policy here at CWRU. It is worth noting, however, that like alcohol and tobacco use, studies have found that there are potential consequences for your health that go along with marijuana use—something to think about.

If the generally flat terrain and lack of bears hadn’t clued you in, we are not in Alaska or Colorado. In Ohio marijuana is still illegal to possess, grow, use or sell. Possession of small amounts is typically a misdemeanor offense; possession of large amounts by weight or having marijuana that is packaged for sale are felony offenses. Felony offenses can definitely put a crimp in your law/medical/graduate school or future employment plans. It is also a violation of university policy.

Marijuana often gives off a distinct odor that is easily detectable in places like residence halls and tricks like stuffing towels under the door or emptying Febreze cans don’t work. And like on airplanes, disabling smoke detectors is illegal, dangerous, a generally bad idea and will be detected.

On a related subject, CWRU, like any city with a population of several thousand people, has a lot of people on prescription medication. Prescription medications need to be kept in the bottle they came in with the name of the doctor and the patient on the front. Mixing multiple prescriptions/dosages in one bottle, and certainly selling medications to someone for whom they were not prescribed, is also a bad idea and highly illegal. Also something to keep in mind.

Let’s look out for each other.

On the Beat is a weekly safety column written by Sergeant Jeffrey Daberko of CWRU PD. He welcomes questions, suggestions and gripes/groans/moans/complaints about campus life at policecolumn@case.edu.