Sign the Letter to AG Holder: Stop the Raids

Despite the Department of Justice memo advising the DEA and federal prosecutors not to spend resources arresting medical marijuana patients and raiding medical marijuana providers in states that have passed legislation protecting these people, federal agents have recently shut down 26 medical cannabis dispensaries in Montana and California. 

Just Say Now, SSDP's partnership with Firedoglake has written a letter telling Attorney General Holder to enforce his memo and prohibit federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries. We want you to sign on to the letter. 

As Attorney General, Holder has the ability to enforce his memo and end these raids. He should send a strong message that federal law enforcement resources should not be abused and wasted to override state's rights. 

Click here to sign the letter: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/fedraids

Northern Illinois University Student Group Denied Recognition for Views on Drug Policy (Press Release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 7, 2010
CONTACT: Jonathan Perri, SSDP Associate Director – (401) 265-9445 or jon@ssdp.org

Erik Haslinger, NIU SSDP Publicity Chair – (815) 575-9420

Northern Illinois University Student Group Denied 
Recognition for Views on Drug Policy

Students for Sensible Drug Policy claim the NIU Student Association Senate violated their First Amendment Rights.   

DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy have been denied recognition as an official student organization for the second time after the group refused to classify itself as a political group and asked to be considered a social justice advocacy group. The decision means the group cannot meet on campus, post flyers or apply for funding. However, groups involved in similar advocacy work but on different issues, including anti-abortion groups, are eligible to receive funding.

“It’s clear that the NIU Student Association Senate is incapable of fairly imposing it’s policies on student groups and after speaking with lawyers and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), we believe that the NIU Student Association Senate is in violation of the First Amendment,” explained Jonathan Perri, Associate Director at SSDP. “Unfortunately, it also seems that some members of the Senate are simply opposed to SSDP’s mission to promote an open and rational discussion about alternatives to current drug policies, including marijuana legalization, and that this may be the basis for their decision.”

FIRE and SSDP believe that the Senate has specifically violated all five of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Perri explained that it is uncommon for SSDP to have such difficulty with becoming an official group. “We have chapters on almost 150 campuses around the country and have been active for 12 years. This is the first time I’ve seen such blatant unfairness from a student government and we ask that NIU President John G. Peters immediately intervene and protect NIU student rights.”

SSDP hopes to work with NIU administrators to ensure that student speech and rights are protected for all groups on campus. A petition hosted at Change.org has been created, asking NIU President Peters to take action.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy is an international grassroots network of students who are concerned about the impact drug abuse has on our communities, but who also know that the War on Drugs is failing our generation and our society. SSDP mobilizes and empowers young people to participate in the political process, pushing for sensible policies to achieve a safer and more just future, while fighting back against counterproductive Drug War policies, particularly those that directly harm students and youth.
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Students Must GOTV in California

If California's Proposition 19 wins in 12 days, it will be because students came out and voted.

As Firedoglake's Jon Walker points out, those most likely to vote yes on Prop 19 are also those most likely to not vote on November 2. 

According to the recent SurveyUSA poll, supporters of Prop 19 are more likely to be infrequent voters and less likely to have already voted by mail. The poll found those voters who say they “always” vote oppose Prop 19 by a margin of 44 to 47. On the other hand, likely voters who tend to rarely vote in midterms overwhelmingly support Prop 19. As a group, these infrequent voters support Prop 19 by a margin of nearly two to one, 58 percent to 34 percent. This means that for every two percent increase in overall turnout from infrequent voters, there would be an almost one percent increase in support for Prop 19.

The poll also found that among people who have already sent in a ballot, Prop 19 is narrowly losing, 47 percent to 50 percent, but it leads 48 to 42 among those who plan to vote but have not already. Of course, people who have already voted can’t change their minds and, by definition, can’t forget to vote on election day, which is not true with those who have yet to vote early.

Bottom line. Young people not only need to vote on Nov. 2, they have to drag their friends and peers to the polls with them.

Call Voters for Marijuana Reform

Watch the instructional video and start making calls today!

You can use your phone to directly help legalize marijuana!

Our Just Say Now Phonebank is a virtual system that provides you with a free, quick & easy way to reach individual voters in states voting on marijuana initiatives.

There are thousands of voters in Arizona, California, Oregon, and South Dakota who we need to vote for marijuana reforms this November. These voters need to hear from you, and we need to identify supporters so we can get out the vote to end the war on marijuana.

Help us end the war on marijuana - start calling voters in support of marijuana reform today. Click here to start calling: http://go.firedoglake.com/

Our goal is to call 50,000 voters in California in the next 30 days.  If 2,500 people call 20 voters each, about 5 calls per week, we can reach that goal.  You don't have to do it all yourself, though - pass this email to your friends and ask them to call.

Each call just takes a few minutes, and you can start calling voters with just your email address or Facebook account. There's even a video that explains how to call, step by step.

If you're in an SSDP chapter, you can earn points and compete with other chapters everytime you call or rectruit people to your chapter's team. Points are updated in real time on our leaderboard!

Voicing your support for this issue has never been easier or more urgently important, so start calling voters today.