Students at Trinity College, Dublin have voted down a proposal of their student union campaign for the campus to become a "cannabis-friendly" zone.
Over 3,600 students voted on a motion that called on TCDSU to lobby the Government to decriminalise possession of "small amounts" of cannabis for personal use.
Under the student union constitution, every college student has the right to submit an issue for a referendum, once they can obtain 350 signatures of support.
But out of 3,654 votes cast in the referendum, which ran alongside the annual union elections earlier this week, 43 per cent voted in favour of the move, while 57 per cent voted against.
The referendum asked students to mandate the union to "lobby the Government and campaign for the full legalisation of cannabis for medical, research and recreational use." And it said the union should "campaign for the Trinity College campus to be made a cannabis -friendly zone."
If it had been passed, as had been widely expected, the proposed referendum could have led to conflict between the union and college authorities over TCD's official policy of strictly following the law, which prohibits the sale and possession of cannabis.
Union president Mr Francis Kieran said the defeat did not necessarily indicate students were opposed to cannabis. "It does show clearly that a majority do not think that campaigning on legalisation or making Trinity a cannabis-friendly zone should be a priority issue for the students' union," he said. "I don't think you can say that it indicates students are for or against cannabis."
The junior dean of TCD, Mr Brendan Tangney, said he would not have been surprised had the result gone the other way.
But he added: "What it does say is that the popular image of students being hedonistic pleasure-seekers is just not true."
"Students are very serious about their studies and getting through college."