The medical marijuana movement is “absolutely” a backdoor attempt to legalize marijuana, according Michael Lerner, the organizer of the Colorado Cannabis Convention that’s going on in Denver this weekend.

Lerner believes the current medical marijuana movement is nearly identical to the second phase of prohibition in which some people feigned ailments to get a doctor’s recommendation to drink booze. In 1929, there were 60,000 reported cases of snakebites Ń one of the ailments that doctors could recommend alcohol for. After alcohol became legal again in 1933, the number of reported snakebites declined dramatically, which Lerner doesn’t see as a coincidence.

“Remember the guy who claimed they had a snake bite in 1929 to be able to drink alcohol, a few years later was able to walk down the street and purchase (alcohol)?” he said. “That’s where we’re at.”

Lerner,who also runs KUSH Magazine and DailyBuds.com, has sunk $400,000 of his own money into the Colorado Cannabis Convention. The event is being touted as the largest cannabis convention in the history of the United States, and will boast more than 300 booths featuring everything from holistic healing to glass blowing. The two-day event will also feature a town hall meeting with elected officials from the city, state, and federal level.

“I am thrilled to be able to bring the largest cannabis convention in history to Denver Ń a convention that shows the incredible professionalism that this industry is experiencing in a city that is showing how cannabis can help both people and business,” he said in a statement.

Lerner expects California voters to legalize marijuana this November. He expects Colorado voters to follow California’s lead shortly thereafter.

Mason Tvert, leader of the group Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), has introduced a ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana in Colorado. He joined college activists at the Auraria Campus yesterday to promote the “Emerald Initiative,” a measure calling on college presidents and chancellors to support “informed and dispassionate public debate” on whether allowing students to use marijuana more freely could reduce dangerous drinking on and around college campuses.

The Emerald Initiative is SAFER’s response to the Amethyst Initiative, a statement endorsed by more than 130 college presidents and chancellors calling for discussion on whether lowering the legal drinking age to 18 would reduce levels of student drinking and the serious problems it can bring. 

“Universities nationwide are trying everything from encouraging students to drink responsibly, promoting ‘social norms drinking,’ and even, in some cases, proposing a lowering of the drinking age in order to curb dangerous student alcohol use,” said Tvert. “Some may scoff at the Emerald Initiative, but it’s no less viable a plan and this is literally a matter of life and death.”

“(Marijuana’s) something you just do hanging out and playing video games, you know. Can that really constitute as a party?” he said.

But fellow Auraria student Tom Green said he thinks the negative effects of alcohol would decrease were marijuana to be legalized. 

“If people smoked on campus rather than drank on campus, there would be a lot less violence going on,” he said. “Alcohol, from personal experiences and what I’ve seen, has just brought violence into peoples’ lives.”

Yesterday’s rally on the Auraria campus was one of 80 similar events held on colleges and universities throughout the country aimed at urging universities to reduce penalties for marijuana use. April 1 marks the first day of National Alcohol Awareness Month.