Students for Sensible Drug Policy

The Bush administration wages its War on Drugs in the name of protecting young people. Students for Sensible Drug Policy mobilizes students who are fed up with policies that hurt the younger generation.

Over the past eight years, SSDP has fought back against attacks on youth while creating an organization at the national and chapter levels. The year 2006 was the most successful in its history, and the group plans to build on this success in 2007.

The recent announcement that Rep. Dennis Kucinich will chair the Domestic Policy Subcommittee of the House Government Reform Committee, giving him jurisdiction over the Drug Czar’s office, the ONDCP, bolsters reform opportunities.  Kucinich met with SSDP staffers during his 2004 run for President, so they have a good relationship on which to build.

Oversight of ONDCP was previously conducted by a committee chaired by rabid drug warrior Mark Souder, who lost his office in last year’s election. Overnight, responsibility shifted from Congress’ most extreme drug warrior to one of its most outspoken drug policy reformers.
The SSDP is building a bona fide student movement to bring about sensible drug policies on college campuses and in communities nationwide, working with a staff of four and a relatively small budget.

Here’s a sampling of some of SSDP’s accomplishments in 2006:

• HEAReform: After eight years of lobbying and hard work, SSDP and its coalition partners convinced Congress to scale back the HEAAid Elimination Penalty, the law that has denied federal financial aid to nearly 200,000 students with drug convictions.  The law now no longer applies to students with past convictions, allowing tens of thousands of students to return to school in 2007. Meanwhile, we launched a lawsuit in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the penalty. While a judge wrongly dismissed the lawsuit, it put the impetus back on Congress to fully repeal the penalty in the coming year.

• SSDP Conference: This was the largest, most successful SSDP conference yet. Over 300 students from 70 campuses came to Washington, DC to learn about the Drug War and gain activist skills training to become better advocates. They heard from MSNBC’s Bill Press, The Chicago Tribune’s Clarence Page, former DNC Press Secretary Terry Michael, and others. They also held a Congressional Lobby Day, where they met with staffers for more than 80 members of Congress.

• Freedom of Information lawsuit: When the Department of Education illegally tried to charge SSDP over $4,000 to fulfill a Freedom of Information Act request, it sued the government and won, getting the requested data, and sending a message to the federal government that they can not bully small non-profits with outlandish fees for information simply because they disagree with the group’s message.
  

The SSDP used that data for a report detailing the state-by-state breakdown of

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Overnight, ONDCP oversight shifted from Congress’ most extreme drug warrior to one of its most outspoken reformers.

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200,000 students denied educational financial aid due to a drug conviction. The report was covered in hundreds of local and campus newspapers nationwide, and cited by the Congressional Research Service.

• Chapter growth: Over the course of the year, the number of SSDP chapters more than doubled to nearly 100 in the US and Canada; the largest expansion since the SSDP was founded.

• Canada SSDP: For the first time, SSDP expanded beyond the US into Canada. There are now ten chapters of the newly formed Canada Students for Sensible Drug Policy, which is awaiting approval of their non-profit status from the Canadian government.

Campus Change Campaign

Earlier this year SSDP officially launched its Campus Change Campaign to help activists get rid of punitive drug policies on their campuses. Over the course of the year many SSDP chapters ran highly successful campaigns:

• The University of Maine at Farmington SSDP chapter convinced the administration to stop evicting students from university housing for first time marijuana possession offenses.

• Chapters at the U of Maryland and Florida State ran successful campus voter initiatives calling on their schools to lower penalties for cannabis to equal those for underage drinking.• Truman State SSDP ran a successful campus voter initiative asking the administration to stop notifying parents when adult students are caught with drugs on campus.

• The U of Georgia and U of Connecticut chapters are working to enact medical amnesty programs to make sure students aren’t punished when they call campus security to help a friend who is overdosing on drugs or alcohol.• SSDP chapters are also changing punitive drug policies at the state level. In Rhode Island, two SSDP chapters teamed up to form a coalition that helped win passage of a bill making it the nation’s eleventh medical marijuana state. The Brown SSDP chapter played an integral role in passing the Right to Vote constitutional amendment, restoring voting rights for convicted state felons who have been released from prison.

SSDP in 2007

In 2007, SSDP hopes to finally see financial aid restored to students with drug convictions. To that end it plans to train activists to change harmful campus drug policies, and continue to grow our network across North America. Here are just a few of our goals for the coming year:

• HEA Repeal: SSDP is optimistic that 2007 will be the year to finally repeal the Higher Education Act’s aid elimination penalty once and for all. In 2006, 71 House Democrats co-sponsored a bill to repeal the penalty. With the leadership change in Congress and the entire Act to be reauthorized soon, this could be the best chance yet to repeal the penalty through an amendment to delete it from the HEA.

• Student Drug Testing: SSDP will turn up the pressure on Congress to stop providing funding for public schools to implement random student drug testing. In particular, it will ask legislators to shift funds to programs that are proven to keep kids from abusing drugs, such as youthful reentry programs.

• ONDCP Youth Media Campaign: When the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s budget is debated this year, SSDP will pressure Congress to stop funding the anti-drug propaganda ads. These offensive ads have cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars and are proved not to work by the government’s own studies.

• Campus Change Campaign: Many chapters spent 2006 planning to modify harmful campus drug policies, and SSDP hopes to provide the resources and support needed to see these campaigns through. Dozens of chapters will be working on campaigns to lower penalties for marijuana possession on campus, stop evicting students from university housing for drug possession, cease bringing local police oncampus to arrest students caught with small amounts of drugs, and enact medical amnesty policies that will save the lives of thousands of students nationwide.

None of these goals can be achieved without financial support from people who share the group’s concern about the Drug War’s attacks on young people. It relies upon the involvement and generous contribution to SSDP by people like you.

For nearly nine years, Students for Sensible Drug Policy has been the leading voice for young people who are fighting back against the Drug War. For information or to contribute online, visit ssdp.org.

* Krane is Executive Director of SSDP