4/20 came and went yesterday at Skidmore without as much as a puff from the student body, in public anyway. Officials told me today that their was a maximum of 51 students on the lawn near Haupt Pond at the "stoning hour" and that campus safety issued zero citations throughout the day.

I spoke with and overheard several students yesterday who said the holiday had moved indoors due to this year's additional scrutiny. One student mentioned a potential gathering in one of the Northwoods Apartments, but clammed up when I identified myself as a reporter (from that local rag that rained on the pot parade no less). There was also mention of a possible marijuana themed hike through campus trails.

Local T.V. news coverage I caught this morning characterized the event as a failed pro-cannabis protest. From our coverage last year and after speaking with several students I have never been under the impression that there was ever any political statement intended.

My question to Skid Kids, why not? As mentioned in the paper and on this blog earlier this week, the issue of cannabis legalization has a history of peaceful public displays of disobedience. Yesterday I expected students to react to the increased authority presence in one of two ways: sitting around smoking cigarettes and reminiscing about the good ol' days when 4/20 was an unofficially sanctioned "community event", or a critical mass would gather, light up, and wait for officials to make the first move. The latter would've made my day a hell of a lot more interesting.

My point is, you can't pack your pipe and smoke it too. If smoking on the lawn on 4/20 was important to students, they would've started organizing last year, invited Ron Paul and Woody Harrleson, and had a U of C Boulder style demonstration or some sort of pro-pot presentation.

This year proved that Skidmore's cannabis quotient is a non-issue. College students are inevitably going to use illegal substances on any given hour of any given day on any given campus, typically without conviction. Now we just have to wait for this year's "reefer madness" list to be released in July.

Now that that's out of the way, I am working on getting the grand tour of the site of the indoor recreation center for an update piece. At last night's City Council meeting Rec. Director Linda Terricola identified the center as the new home of Camp Saradac starting this year. After walking by the site over the past few weeks I am very interested in seeing how close crews are to completing the project that played a large part in the 2008 city election.

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