Ximena Solorzano, Head Photography Editor

Students in Morse College have been asked to smoke marijuana off campus. 

On Tuesday, an email sent on behalf of Morse Dean Blake Trimble brought up recent concerns about “the frequent smell of marijuana in our college.”

In Connecticut, smoking marijuana is legal for adults ages 21 or over, but smoking on Yale’s campus is not allowed, according to the University’s policies. Trimble also asked students to consider the risk that smoking inside poses against fire safety. He wrote that “many students and staff” have made reports of in-college smoking incidents.

“Many of the members of our community have health conditions  (i.e. asthma, chronic bronchitis, pregnancy…) for whom the frequent smell of marijuana in the place they live is a real concern,” Trimble wrote in the email. “In the future, please take a short walk off campus in order to smoke.”

In response to the email, Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis stated that the University’s policy prohibiting the smoking of marijuana is standard across all colleges; however, it is at the discretion of each residential college’s dean to communicate those policies to students.

“Even I don’t know every single rule that we have,” Lewis said. “But one of the rules we have is no smoking, no marijuana on campus. Clearly people violate the regulations. They need to be reminded.”

Lewis admitted that he worries that marijuana is “much less regulated than it used to be.” He stated, though, that students should be educated in the danger of smoking and excessive drug and alcohol use.

Oyshi Monawarah ’28 lives in Morse College and said that the email was informative and “necessary” to remind students to be considerate of their neighbors.

“We live in a community with different health needs and personal preferences,” Monawarah said. “If anything, weed is one of the few drugs you can truly use anywhere else in New Haven, so maybe just not on campus.”

Cannabis became legal in Connecticut for recreational use on July 1, 2021.