University students convicted of marijuana possession immediately lose their federal financial aid. Those convicted of sexual assault get to keep their grants and loans.

Laws like these, James Kowalsky said, led him to start the Northwestern chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws early this quarter.

The group held its first official event in Swift 107 Thursday night, screening the movie “Grass,” a documentary sympathetic to the group’s cause, to a crowd of around 30 students.

“People don’t know how screwed up these laws are,” said Kowalsky, the group’s president and a Communication sophomore. “The consequences of the crime shouldn’t be greater than the crime itself.”

“Grass,” narrated by Woody Harrelson, traces the history of marijuana criminalization since the drug’s entry into the United States from Mexico in the early 1900s. Early propaganda about the dangers of marijuana led to public hysteria and harsh punishments for possession, according to the film.

The movie shows Depression-era posters and pamphlets from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics saying marijuana leads to extreme violence, insanity and aggressive sexuality.

When scientific evidence emerged listing the most common effects of marijuana as feelings of happiness and sleepiness, the federal government resorted to claims that marijuana led to withdrawal from society and loss of motivation, according to the film.

Attitudes toward marijuana have relaxed since then, Kowalsky said, but more reform is needed.

“I think the biggest problem is that people don’t know what’s true and what’s not true,” Kowalsky said. “The biggest victory of the war on drugs is that it has made us as a society afraid to talk about drugs.”

Group members also raffled off several gift certificates to restaurants such as Ben and Jerry’s, Papa John’s and Cold Stone Creamery. Almost everyone in the audience won at least one item.

– Sarah Sumadi