Each year on April 20, Tufts students gather on the Tisch Library roof to engage in the annual "4/20" celebration, an unofficial holiday in which many people engage in marijuana use. Some students came to the roof this year with the expectation of smoking marijuana, others attended to watch the event and socialize, but no students headed to the roof with the expectation that they would be handcuffed and tackled to the ground by Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) officers. Unlike in previous years, this spring's 4/20 celebration was marked by intense enforcement from TUPD officers, the presence of administrators and one instance of physical force and handcuffing that left students, many of whom had experienced a peaceful event for the past few years, flabbergasted.
TUPD officers alleged that the student in question was ignoring officers' demands and that he acted aggressively toward an officer who was attempting to apprehend him. In addition to the one instance of handcuffing, TUPD officers stopped several students who appeared to be smoking marijuana and took about a dozen Tufts IDs, according to TUPD Capt. Mark Keith. The Daily does not criticize TUPD officers for doing their job and enforcing the university's policy on marijuana use on campus. But on a day that has historically been marked by a liberal attitude toward use of the drug, students were taken off guard by officers' sudden insistence on cracking down. Students have been celebrating 4/20 on the library roof for years without experiencing much reaction from TUPD, and this sudden change put them at a disadvantage.
Though Keith said that he knew about the day's relation to marijuana use, he told the Daily that TUPD was unaware of the tradition for students to gather on the roof at midnight and 4:20 p.m. Students who have attended the event in previous years, however, told the Daily that there has always been a police presence during the celebrations, but that officers have typically just stood by, opting against disciplinary measures in large part. Because officers have more or less allowed students to participate in the festivities on the roof in previous years, a sense of ease developed among students. It was only natural that they would believe that officers would turn a blind eye to marijuana use this year as they have in the past.
If TUPD wanted to crack down on 4/20 activities, the university should have warned students that there would be consequences for those smoking marijuana on the library roof. The university already frequently sends emails regarding the potential consequences for excessive intoxication at special events, and there is no reason that it could not have given students fair warning that TUPD's actions would change this year.
This incident highlights a recent pattern of TUPD's tendency to act more aggressively and enforce policies more stringently than in the past without giving students prior warning. Much of the reason that December's Naked Quad Run was so chaotic was because the administration decided to end the event early without warning students, leading to confusion and students' run-ins with TUPD officers. TUPD and the administration cannot turn a blind eye to certain behavior for several years and then suddenly expect students to be accountable for the actions that have been essentially permitted previously. If TUPD wants to make broad enforcement changes, the university needs to warn students ahead of time rather than punishing them for behavior for which they had not previously been disciplined.
