Interview with Bronson Hilliard

We thought it would be a great idea to interview Bronson Hilliard to find out more information on the handling on 4/20 events at the University of Colorado and the city of Boulder. Hilliard is a spokesperson for the CU Boulder campus.

Hilliard was very satisfied with last year's plan to prevent large groups of people from smoking marijuana on the CU Boulder campus. He says that this year's plan to handle the event will be an extension of last year's highly successful plan.

Hilliard also weighed on on the financial impact caused by preventing the 4/20 event from taking place. The money used to pay for the prevention plan comes from university insurance rebates, therefore none of the money is taken out of the academic fund.  The university is given this rebate money when the school has less than the number of projected safety issues in a given year. This money can then be spent on public safety issues such as the 4/20 prevention plan.

"The 4/20 event represents probably the largest potential threat to public safety that we have," says Hilliard. "The potential for somebody getting hurt, with that many people, with 10 to 12 thousand people jammed into the Norlin Quad area is quite high."

Hilliard went out to discuss how the 4/20 celebration is not only a safety issue, but also causes disruption on campus. People with chemical sensitivities have even complained about the event taking place in past years and wondered why it was allowed to happen. Hilliard also made it clear that the 4/20 event should not be allowed this year, despite April 20 occurring on a weekend this year.

"Our academic mission takes place on a Saturday just as much as it does on a weekday," says Hilliard. "On any given saturday we've got meetings going on, we've got graduate work, undergraduate work, we've got studying for finals."

Hilliard would go on to mention that the current approach, as well as the one taken prior to 2012 are both difficult to accommodate. Between 2009 and 2011, when when the event was allowed on campus,  CU Boulder had to spend around $55,000 per year to accomodate the event. The event requires a lot of resources with both approaches to the event.

CU Boulder has certainly had to take on some criticism to stop the 4/20 celebration from taking place on campus. They are willing to accept that criticism to project their mission as a university. Prevention of the event will continue, but the challenges will continue as well.

Hilliard said that a big challenge being faced this year is trying to convince people that the event is being stopped for the right reasons, not as CU's contribution to the war on drugs. The university believes preventing this event will help protect CU's research mission. Hilliard wanted to make it clear that this his nothing to do with legalization issues or Amendment 64.

It is still illegal for people age 18-21 to use marijuana, and still illegal for people to smoke marijuana in public. The passing of Amendment 64 allows people to possess marijuana in their own home, but not smoke it in places such as the CU Boulder campus. It is important for people to understand the limitations of the new laws and avoid making incorrect misconceptions that have been taking place with the public recently.

Another issue with the  4/20 smoke out taking place on campus involves Federal law. Under Federal law marijuana is still considered an illegal drug. Public schools such as CU Boulder are still obligated to make marijuana illegal on campus because of Federal law. To receive federal research dollars, the school is obligated to comply with Federal drug laws that are against marijuana use.