Student's Against Spencer's?

In Dover NH, members of a "peer-oriented drug prevention program" called Youth 2 Youth are trying to pass a town ordinance ordinance asking that stores in town not be allowed to sell products that promote drug use to children under 18; to require teens to be 18 before they can enter the store; and to put the products in a separate location so it can be monitored.

They are claiming that all items depicting marijuana leaves are promoting drug use to children. To try an make a very poor point, Youth 2 Youth sends a 9 year old to buy items with marijuana leafs on them. I doubt it is very typical for 9 year olds to ever purchase those items and if they did, shouldn't it be the parents responsibility to monitor what their children are buying and using? I know my mom wouldn't have let me have a pot leaf poster at 9 years old but she wouldn't have allowed me to have a Budweiser poster either. Many schools already have dress codes in place that prohibit clothing with drug references anyway.

In NH of all places, Youth 2 Youth is trying to limit free speech and expression and is blurring the importance of a peer to peer drug education. If a Dover teen wants to spend their earned money on a book about marijuana or super trippy black light poster they should be able to. Youth 2 Youth's efforts should be put into reducing the harms associated with drug use, not prohibiting posters, lollipops, and t-shirts. That is why approaches to reducing drug use like this do not work, like DARE they are over exaggerating, ignoring the root of the problem and alienating those students that may have different interests than they do.

Meet Jake Roland...

...SSDP's new Outreach Director!



Jake will be helping new chapters get set up and established on campus, while I will be focusing on assisting our established chapters with campaigns and major events. Say hi to Jake by sending an email to jake // at // ssdp.org

Welcome to the team, Jake!

Another victim of the Drug War

The following heart-wrenching story was sent to the SSDP office this morning...

I went hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park, UT, at the end of last summer. I consumed some hallucinogenic mushrooms, and had a small amount still on me. The person that I was with was my new roommate, and I thought he had more experience with hallucinogens. Unfortunately, I was mistaken. We took a wrong turn off of the trail (attempting to avoid other visitors), and my acquaintance slipped and started sliding down the rock walls of the canyon. I did not know if he was OK or not. At the time, I was the president of the rock climbing club at my school, and I had a lot of hiking experience. I thought that I would be able to go down slowly, and help him.

My judgment was corrupted by the mushroom trip, and I ended up sliding down a portion of the canyon as well. I clawed into the sides of the canyon with my hands, only to find them scraped and bleeding. That's when the trip went really, really bad. I realized the danger we were in, and I panicked. There was no way out of this one, and all I wanted was to be on stable ground. I tried to hike out, but I couldn't make it safely. I couldn't trust my judgment any more. I wanted it to stop. I wanted it to be over, but I had at least another hour left in the trip.

I tried to call my parents, but I didn't have cell service. I yelled for help. Some other park visitors heard my yell, and a rescue team was on the way. We were pulled out of the canyon with ropes and harnesses and taken to the hospital. By the time I got to the top, my trip was over. My acquaintance had already admitted to authorities that we both took mushrooms. They found the mushrooms which I had tried to put under a rock. After the hospital, we were both taken to jail.

I have been a straight-A honor student my whole life. I graduated high school valedictorian. I was president of the national honor society. In college, I am a 4.0 Senior III in Mechanical Engineering. I have been accepted into every honor society that I have applied myself toward, including those which have nothing to do with academics. I have served as a class representative on student government. I am a founding member of the Kettering Entrepreneur Society. I am on the board of directors for a community service organization called real SERVICE, Inc. I organized a recent benefit concert at my school which raised over $2,000 for New Orleans musicians.

My list of accomplishments goes on and on and on. I am not a druggie. I am not a burnout. I had a perfectly clean criminal record. But I made a huge mistake that day in Bryce Canyon, and it has cost me dearly. I was charged with possession of hallucinogenic mushrooms and intoxication in a National Park, a 2nd degree felony. In addition, I was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, which they found by searching my car. Since I am not ashamed, I confessed what happened and plead guilty to all charges. The charges for possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and intoxication were all dropped, but I am stuck with a 2nd degree felony on my record.

Even though the crime had nothing to do with driving, I lost my driving privileges in Utah for 6 months. I have been doing my internship here all winter, so I have had to rely on people I barely know for rides to and from work all winter long. I ride most of the time in the bed of a Subaru Brat. Fortunately, my school never found out about the charges, and I am still in line to graduate. I did not fill out a FAFSA this year. I have completed a rehab program, and I have 2 unannounced drug screens that came out clean.

My philosophy has always been this: I will not try any drug which is reasonably addictive or lethal. Unfortunately for me, the legal system does not reflect these priorities since psylocybin is classified as a schedule I controlled substance. My largest concern with this felony is my eligibility for hire upon graduation. This has potential to impact the rest of my life.

This incident has opened my eyes in many ways. I am now a huge supporter of drug policy reform. I appreciate everything that SSDP is doing. Without organizations like SSDP, students are truly without a voice. Thank you for bringing the people who care together. United we stand.

Please TAKE ACTION to protect young people from having their aspirations derailed by the War on Drugs.

Free Speech Rally

More videos here.

UMD Keeps on Rockin'

My apologies for not getting this post up sooner. University of Maryland SSDP is always setting a great example for SSDP chapters to follow and recently they have added another notch under their belts.

Stacia Cosner and gang succeeded in getting a resolution passed in their Student Government asking the administration to make marijuana penalties equal to that of underage drinking. That is a huge step in this ongoing battle to end a rather ignorant policy.

Heres what Stacia had to say:

Many of you are familiar with the ongoing battle we have been fighting here at UMD to get the changes implemented from our SAFER initiative, passed in April 2006 with 65% of the student body vote. The administration has instructed us to go through difficult, confusing, bureaucratic red tape in order to officially get our changes in place. I'll spare you all of the ridiculous details surrounding our efforts of the past two years. Long story short - this is one huge step in our quest - as now it is going to be almost impossible for the administrators to brush us off any longer! Please check out an Op-Ed that one of our chapter members, Rebecca Ogle, got published last week, it eloquently states what the resolution was concerning: "Sensibility on Cannabis"

The RHA win was and is a huge victory and cause for celebration for us, but it was just a huge step, towards the ultimate goal of ACTUALLY reflecting what the students want in our school's policies. Now, the process begins with the administration.

If the administration blocks these changes at this point, they are blatantly ignoring the students' will . And we - as students - will not stand for that!

Damn Straight. Good luck guys.

Live Free or Die.

New Hampshire's HB 774 would legalize the use of medical marijuana for patients throughout the state.

Check out Live Free's new website for more information about HB 774 and how you can help.

For many New Hampshire residents, HB 774 gives literal meaning to the motto "Live Free or Die".

Rise in Drug Raids

Of all the aspects of the drug war that bother me nothing frightens and enrages me more than the SWAT tactics associated with no-knock drug raids. It is nothing new for most of us who have read Radley Balko's Overkill or spent some time viewing the Drug War Victim's memorial page, that drug raids are often extremely dangerous. Often resulting in traumatized children and families, wrong addresses, and deaths of innocent civilians and police officers as well.

Look at this story focusing on Passaic County, New Jersey, where law enforcement officers from city, county, state and federal agencies have escalated their raids on homes in an attempt to crack down on narcotics. From 2001 to 2006, the number of warrants authorizing such raids more than tripled. Heres is an audio file from victims of one such Paterson raid, in which they describe the shooting of their family dog by raiding SWAT officers.

The raid was one of more than 350 search warrants executed in Passaic County in 2004. In their efforts to crack down on the Paterson-area drug trade, law enforcement officers from city, county, state and federal agencies have escalated their raids on homes, sometimes using heavily armed units to batter down doors and tear through residents' belongings as they search for stored contraband. The number of houses and apartments Paterson Police Department's narcotics bureau entered also tripled during that period; in 2006 city police obtained warrants to search 162 homes.

Local raids have resulted in hundreds of arrests and the seizure of millions of dollars in cash and illegal drugs. They have also left a wake of traumatized innocents -- children, seniors, neighbors and visitors who happened to be present during a search. Despite the Fourth Amendment's safeguard against "unreasonable searches and seizures," residents have few protections during the course of a raid, legal experts say.

Please read this full investigation by Suzanne Travers. It goes into great detail about the after effects of these raids on American's and in particular the children that are involved. Its also talks about incidents in which non-violent teens was smashed in the face with the butt of a rifle and then told to lie about it, saying it was a coffee table that did the damage.

It seems the police can do anything they want when drugs are the excuse. Nothing frightens me more than the idea of having my house raided at 4am because an informant with everything to lose rats me out to save his/her own ass. I just find it disgusting really. No amount of drug use or possession justifies such actions in the privacy of our homes.

Reformers beat DEA in court. What now?

A few weeks ago the DEA's administrative law judge ruled that the federal government's monopoly on growing marijuana for research purposes is unnecessary, harmful, and should end. The ruling is in response to a lawsuit filed by UMass-Amherst professor Lyle Craker, who wants to grow research grade marijuana for medical trials. Of course, the DEA doesn't like that; but their own law judge disagrees.

Unfortunately, DEA is totally free to disregard the judge's ruling and maintain the government's marijuana monopoly. It will be interesting to see what will happen now that the ball is in the DEA's hands, especially if Congress gets involved and exerts some pressure.

This is a somewhat complicated case, but the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) does a good job of explaining everything in this podcast. Give it a listen, whydontcha?

A full background on the case is here.

Doctors oppose drug testing (big surprise!)

In a move that is sure to shock the nationwide community of drug testing supporters, who are either

• completely lacking common sense or
  
• financially interested in what has become a booming drug testing industry,

the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a report condemning drug testing of youngsters today.

It's baffling enough that people can continue to support the policy of prohibition despite its very obvious track record of failure and counter-productivity. Yet, I can understand how a person who isn't much interested in public policy or in drugs (both of which are significant areas of study for me and many others in the drug policy reform movement) could reach the conclusion that repealing drug prohibition would bring about harm to society, as demonstrably false as it may be.

However, I cannot fathom how people could take the very down-to-earth example of drug testing, which deals with issues like their own children and communities, and not see how dangerous this practice is.

I am aware of no serious medical groups who have sanctioned the practice. In fact, I have never heard a sensible argument for it whatsoever!

I took the liberty of emailing Steven Steiner of DAMMADD, who has previously made pro-testing comments, asking him what he thinks:

Hello Mr. Steiner. Long time no speak.

As a drug policy reformer and user of some drugs which are currently illegal, it goes without saying that I disagree with much of your ideas regarding our State and Nation's drug laws.

However, I am curious about how you might feel about the recent report from the American Academy of Pediatrics advising parents against student drug testing.

Even if you support the drug war generally, are you open to the possibility that testing young people for drugs can have disastrously counter-productive consequences?

Thanks and let's try to keep the lines of communication open.

SSDP Files Amicus Brief

On Wednesday Students for Sensible Drug Policy officially took action to defend students' rights in a brief filed in the most important Supreme Court case ever to deal with student free speech about drugs and drug policy. SSDP filed an Amicus Curiae (Friend of the Court) brief in the Supreme Court case of Morse v Frederick, better known as the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case. Read the brief at http://www.ssdp.org/ssdp-scotus-bh4j.pdf

While this case started out with a student being punished for displaying an absurd banner, the potential consequences of the Supreme Court's decision are far from a laughing matter. The school district, represented pro bono by Whitewater special prosecutor Ken Starr, is arguing for a blanket prohibition on any student speech about drugs. They argue that schools should be able to ban speech that is "inconsistent with the mission of the school to promote healthy lifestyles (including at every turn to combat substance abuse)." If the Supreme Court adopts this standard, principals could legally prevent students from forming SSDP chapters at their high schools!

Filing a Supreme Court brief is expensive for a small non-profit such as ours. Our printing and filing fees for this brief will cost up to $1,500. We are willing to take this money out of our budget because of the importance of this case, but are asking our supporters to help offset the cost by making a generous contribution to SSDP today at http://www.ssdp.org/donate/