The SSDP Voice: Summer 2010

The SSDP Voice

A PUBLICATION OF STUDENTS FOR SENSIBLE DRUG POLICY

2010: History in the Making This past year, SSDP has been part of some historic events. In July, Congress reformed the disastrous crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity, an issue SSDP has been working on since our inception. In 2008, our national lobby day sent over 200 students to meet with their representatives in Washington, D.C. about ending the disparity.

In June, SSDP members generated thousands of phone calls to representatives in Washington, asking for their support of the National Criminal Justice Act introduced by Sen. Jim Webb. In July, the House of Representatives

passed the act and if approved by the Senate, it will establish a blue-ribbon panel to review the effectiveness of the criminal justice system.

We have hired a new executive director and our first international liaison. For the first time, our international conference was held on the west coast and was an immense success with nearly 500 attendees.

We have worked hard to grow our chapter network in the U.S. and it has expand by almost 30% since 2009. SSDP’s chapter presence in California has more than doubled since Jon Perri came on

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as our first western region outreach director. Internationally our network continues to grow with new chapters forming in Australia and Colombia.

We’re also excited to announce LawSSDP and MedSSDP, our recent expansion into law schools and medical schools. This provides graduate students with a new chapter model different than that of our undergraduate chapters that will allow graduate students to bring a new perspective and credibility to SSDP’s drug policy reform work.

SSDP’s Efforts to End Crack/Powder Sentencing Disparity In July, Congress reformed the disastrous crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity, an issue SSDP has been working on since our inception. For over 20 years, sentences for crack cocaine crimes were 100 times

those given to people convicted of powder cocaine offenses.The disparity is now at 18:1, a huge improvement but still unfair. In 2008, SSDP’s national lobby day sent over 200 students to meet with their representatives in

Washington, D.C. and urge them to help end the disparity by supporting legislation. We will continue to educate our communities and lobby our representatives until a just reform is achieved.

Just Say Now Campaign to Legalize Marijuana Launched In July, SSDP announced it’s partnership with the progressive political blog Firedoglake to

in this issue Message from Aaron

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Outstanding Chapters

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International Expansion

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National Strategy Summit 5 Conferences & Awards

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draw attention to marijuana legalization efforts through the formation of our Just Say Now campaign.

Just Say Now’s advisory board includes former law enforcement officers, physicians, and others from all sides of the political spectrum. A notable members include Bruce Fein, Associate Deputy Attorney General and General Counsel to the Federal Communications Commission under President Reagan.

We have started a petition through the campaign calling on President Obama to end marijuana prohibition. Sign it!

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Letter from the Executive Director Friends, I continue to be really excited to have been hired as SSDP’s executive director in June. My past job saw me spend seven years as Capitol Hill’s only full-time marijuana legalization lobbyist. I did some pretty cool stuff in that job, like appear as a guest on the Colbert Report and feature in a Showtime documentary. But the opportunity to work with you — and I consider this to be the country’s most dedicated student movement — is the chance of my lifetime.

SSDP has been part of some historic political events this past year. In July 2010, Congress reformed the disastrous crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity.

That same week the House of Representatives passed a bill establishing review of the criminal justice system, including drug offenses. SSDP has been at the heart of these struggles from the first days of its existence.

SSDP members prepared the ground for these victories. In 2008, SSDP’s national lobby day sent more than 200 students to meet with their representatives in Washington, D.C., urging them to end the crack-cocaine powder disparity. And, in June 2010, a month before these historic votes, SSDP members generated thousands of phone calls to representatives in Washington, asking for their support of Senator Jim Webb’s National Criminal Justice Act.

We’ve also sought alliances with organizations supportive of drug reform. In early August, SSDP launched Just Say Now, a partnership with the blog FireDogLake which unites a coalition of former police chiefs, students, two sometime Reagan Administration officials, and major players in the marijuana legalization movement, such as the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). The campaign’s debut resulted in SSDP being mentioned or interviewed on many media outlets: CNN, FOX News, NBC News, CBS News, NPR, the New York Times, Rolling Stone magazine, and Politico, among others.

SSDP’s national staff is already preparing for next year. We’ll host a lobby day and training conference in Washington, D.C. in March 2011. More information will be available soon on our revamped website.

And there’s more good news. The truth is that SSDP is just getting started.

But we need your support and assistance. Will you help us by getting involved? Consider attending our training conference, inviting your friends to participate in this monumental struggle, or by making a donation.

Thanks for your continued support!

Aaron Houston Executive Director Students for Sensible Drug Policy

Irina Alexander, Board of Directors Chair, welcomes Aaron Houston as new Exective Director with an SSDPie in the face

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Outstanding Chapters Highlighting SSDP’s best & brightest in 2010

University of California, Berkeley

After hosting SSDP’s first West Coast Regional Conference in 2009, the chapter at the University of California Berkeley has grown to over 50 members and is working on multiple campaigns.

Using a board of directors-like leadership structure, they have successfully

motivated a dedicated group of grassroots activist who table every week to promote their events and meetings.

They even hosted an outreach training session to teach new chapter members how to recruit new members and promote SSDP on campus.

Proposition 19, California’s marijuana legalization initiative, has been at the forefront of their work throughout 2010. They are working tirelessly to register and educate voters. Kat Murti, a recent graduate and last year’s chapter President now volunteers as a

regional coordinator for the campaign along with Joel Wagner, a current chapter leader. Even one of the chapter’s founding members, SSDP alum Rebecca Saltzman, serves as the Yes on 19 Deputy Campaign Manager.

cal marijuana legislation in New York.

Evan Nison, president of the chapter,

vocates who have been able to bring attention to and raise support for safe, legal access to medical cannabis. Evan and other activists at Ithaca have been coordinating petition drives and other lobbying tactics with all SSDP chapters and other drug policy reform organizations and supporters in the state to build and strengthen a grassroots network of supporters. This summer, Evan brought his skills to the west coast after being hired by the Tax Cannabis campaign to pass Prop 19 this November.

But marijuana law reform isn’t the only thing the chapter is working on.

They are pushing hard for a Good Samaritan policy to be instituted on campus after a student nearly died when his peers hesitated to call 911 in a drug related emergency.

Ithaca College On the campus level, Ithaca College SSDP worked to get a “medical amnesty” policy for alcohol and other drugs signed by their President, which will go into effect this fall semester.

Chapter members have also been urging the Ithaca city council to pass a resolution allowing for legal cultivation of hemp. It’s hard to imagine how the chapter would have time for much more, but on top of all of this, SSDPers at Ithaca have been doing everything they can to advance statewide medi-

is one of the founders of New York Patients First, a coalition of patient ad-

University of Minnesota Representing one of the largest college campuses the country, the University of Minnesota is making a name for SSDP and an impact on local change.

In the last year UMN SSDP has exploded in membership, growing from a small handful of starters to a solid core of 30 and a listserv of hundreds.

In the spring, UMN SSDP was a major organizer for a rally of over 300 people to raise awareness on marijuana policy and the harms of drug prohibition. Specifically, SSDP made a point to address social inequalities and engage local mi-

nority communities. In addition to the rally, the chapter has hosted numerous speakers on topics ranging from needle exchange to knowing your rights during a police encounter.

On campus, students have been working hard to implement a Medical Amnesty/Good Samaritan Policy. Although they have not fully changed campus policy, the Office of Student Affairs is editing a statement written

by UMN SSDP which urges students to make the right decision in situations of

alcohol/drug poisoning, sexual assault, and hazing. It isn’t a firm policy, but it is a guideline for which SSDP was specifically asked to help write. As for the full policy change - keep an eye out for future developments. This group is just getting started.

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Patrick Timmons, Ph.D. International Liaison It’s an exciting moment to be a part of SSDP. The two national offices each added one new staff member. Aaron Houston calls the DC office home as SSDP’s latest energetic executive director. Aaron comes from seven years as “marijuana lobbyist” for the Marijuana Policy Project. His successess at MPP immediately contintued at SSDP, especially with the Firedoglake partnership on the Just Say Now campaign.

A decision to expand SSDP’s international presence with chapter expansion and overseas representation bore fruit this year. With thanks to the Open Society Foundations’ Youth Program and Global Drugs Initiative, SSDP hired Patrick Timmons as its first International Liaison. Patrick comes with an anti-prison organizing background, mostly spent in academia, studying the death penalty in nineteenth-century Mexico. He’s excited to be able to take SSDP’s organizing success to other countries, especially in Latin America.

SSDP’s international organizing currently emphasizes expansion in Latin America. Timmons represented SSDP-USA at the Second Latin American Conference on Drug Policy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the end of August. And Juan Ballestas of Universidad Nacional in Bogota represented the new SSDP chapter in Colombia. Ballestas and Timmons met up with students and activists interested in beating the drug war in the hemisphere. And it’s also important to mention our latest Pacific Rim chapter in Sydney, Australia, where Jake Potkonyak has founded SSDP-Macquarie University. In mid-September, Jake has organized an evening of debate called, “What’s the Problem with Prohibition.” Mexico and Brazil are already in SSDP’s vision for expansion Finally, outreach director Amber Langtson moved from the DC office to the West Coast office in San Francisco. She is excited to be involved in SSDP San Francisco.

-Patrick Timmons, Ph.D. International Liaison

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Expanding Internationally This summer saw the formation of SSDP’s first Latin American chapter at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogota. After a request for Outreach Director Amber Langston to visit Bogota in April, students at the UNC decided to form SSDP-UNC Bogota. The chapter has already started changing debates about drug policy in their country and providing harm reduction materials from Bogota-based Echale Cabeza. And their reach is international: chapter president Juan Ballestas traveled to the second Latin American Drug Policy Conference in Rio de Janeiro. There, SSDP participated in documenting meetings, and voicing concerns and ideas about youth’s role in the regional conference. Bienvenidos a la familia de SSDP! SSDP can be proud of its latest Australian chapter, at Macquarie University in Australia.

Led by Jake Potkonyak, the group has already achieved recognition from Macquarie’s student union. When classes started in August, SSDP-Macquarie announced an event called, “What’s the Problem with Prohibition,” with a diverse array of speakers drawn from the Sydney community.

SSDP Voices Support for National Criminal Justice Act On June 23, SSDP members generated thousands of phone calls to representatives in Washington, asking for their support of the National Criminal Justice Act introduced by Sen. Jim Webb. The act will establish a blueribbon panel to review the effectiveness of the criminal justice system and make reccomendations based on it’s finding. Sen. Webb has directly cited drug policies as a major factor in the over incarceration of Americans. The calls SSDP made were part of a national call-in day for criminal justice reform and allowed SSDP to bring a student voice to this issue while working with our allies at the Sentencing Project, FAMM and Drug Policy Alliance.

Shortly following the day of action, the House of Representatives passed the act and SSDP will be calling our Senators to ensure that this makes it out of the Senate and onto President Obama’s desk.

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National Strategy Summit

by Michael Blunk

Every year the Board of Directors, the national staff and a chosen group of alumni and chapter leaders come together to discuss and plan the vision and future of SSDP at our annual Strategy Summit. This year was a little different though as the drug policy movement has been making great advances, and SSDP has grown significantly since last year. The hiring of Aaron Houston as Executive Director was a major driving factor in our discussions. Marijuana legalization is now a policy that SSDP officially endorses, and as you already know we’re partnering with FireDogLake on the

Just Say Now campaign. Larger picture though, the discussions at the Strategy Summit largely dealt with how SSDP is going to grow and fit in the overall drug policy movement as we move forward.

One of the most important discussions we have at the Strategy Summit is on the values and vision of the organization, so important we dedicate an entire day to it. It’s essential that we keep ourselves grounded by what we believe in,

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so that no matter how large SSDP gets we never lose that common bond. The concepts of transparency, liberty, compassion and even joy (to name just a few) help bind all of us together, and these concepts are what drove our conversations through the rest of the summit.

Through our discussions we recognized the unique role SSDP has in the drug policy movement, in that we motivate students and youth to mobilize. We also work in states that there is seemingly no real chance of reform coming, yet we have proven even there change can be had. Our international work in the UK, Canada and South America with students is something no other group doing either.

This is Your Brain on Drug Policy International Conference

For the first time in the organization’s history, SSDP held it’s international conference on the west coast.

Nearly 500 students from all over the world came together for a weekend of networking and education that left them inspired and excited to be part of the growing drug policy reform movement. Held at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, CA, the conference facility boasted views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island; a reminder of the failure of alcohol prohibition.

Hosting the conference in California’s Bay Area allowed students from across the globe to become part of the momentum behind Proposition 19 and to see first hand how a model medical cannabis dispensary operates. We kicked the conference off with a field trip

to Harborside Health Center and to the Prop. 19 Headquarters in downtown Oakland where attendees were given a power point presentation and Q&A session on how the initiative aims to legalize marijuana in the state and how students can play a role in helping with it’s passage.

The speakers and workshops left students inspired and motivated to take the experience back to their campuses. Attendees heard from keynote speakers like Ethan Nadlemann and CA Assemblyman Tom Ammiano and attended workshops on running campaigns, working with the media and finding joy in

your activism.

SSDP’s Awards Dinner and Benefit Concert had nearly 400 people in attendance. Awards were given to the outstanding chapters and activists who helped bring drug policy reform to international attention in 2009 and 2010, as well as the generous supporters that have helped make our work possible. We danced the night way to live music from Roots of Creation.

This was our biggest and best conference to date and inspired not just hundreds of students, but also our national staff who are prepared to make the next one bigger and better.

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Upcoming Events

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Accolades & Awards

Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference Oct. 9-10, 2010, Virginia Commonwealth University Outstanding Student Activists: ssdp.org/conference/midatlantic Jason Matthys Alexander Woon

Northeast Regional Conference

Lifetime Achievement Award:

Oct. 16, 2010, University of Connecticut ssdp.org/conference/northeast

Grace Under Fire Award:

West Coast Regional Conference Oct. 16, 2010 San Francisco State University ssdp.org/conference/westcoast

Mountain Plains Regional Conference Nov. 6, 2010 University of Colorado, Boulder ssdp.org/conference/mountainplains

Kris Krane

University of Texas, El Paso

Dave Borden Friend of SSDP Award: James Anthony

Outstanding Chapters: University of Utah Kent State University

Outstanding Alumni: Matt Potter

Rising Star:

SSDP and MAPS Benefit Dinner & Party

Devon Tackels Marni Steadham

Nov. 7, 2010 Boulder, Colorado

Change Beyond Campus Award: Brown University

Midwest Regional Conference Nov. 12-14 - Kent State University ssdp.org/conference/midwest

Stuart Ableson Goodwill Award: Harborside Health Center Stephen DeAngelo

SSDP Training Conference & Lobby Day March 17-19, 2010 Washington, DC ssdp.org/training/rsvp

P R O D U C E D B Y S S D P S TA F F M E M B E R S • D E S I G N B Y D R E W S T R O M B E R G , W V U S S D P