Recent chapter accomplishments

Mountain Region

• Boise State University SSDP hosted a public forum on New Approach Idaho’s medical marijuana ballot initiative, and chapter members from the College of Western Idaho attended, along with community members from across the state.
• Eight students from four different Colorado schools (Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Denver, and Naropa University) attended syringe access program training at the Harm Reduction Action Center in Denver.

Midwest Region

• Our University of Michigan Law School and Washtenaw Community College chapters have been selected to work with the Washtenaw Community Opioid Task Force to make policy recommendations, and are actively working to gain endorsement for their proposed Good Samaritan policy.
• Luke Zona’s naloxone access proposal at Bowling Green State University has been well received by county-wide decisionmakers and will potentially be implemented over the course of the Spring semester.
• Northwestern University SSDP joined other campus activists to participate in a day of action calling for the university to divest from private prisons.
• Students from Northeast Ohio Medical University and Kent State University have submitted testimony in favor of legalizing medical marijuana in Ohio and lobbied in support of it at a hearing in Cleveland.

Mid-Atlantic Region

 

• Jim Williams and Vivian Perea from Northern Virginia Community College Woodbridge lobbies with members of Virginia NORML for marijuana decriminalization.

 

Heartland region

• Hamline University was selected to participate in the NIDA drug facts day conversation and submitted questions about how regulating drugs could be used to promote harm reduction for end users.

Pacific Region

• Joseph Petitt was  been invited by a member of the Libertarian party, Boomer Shannon, to speak on his marijuana panel at the 7th Annual Southern California Libertarian Conference on January 23rd.
• Glen Marshall Carner, an addiction therapist at Hawaii, is serving as SSDP ambassador in Hawaii and has made numerous faculty contacts. He also frequently mentions us on his podcast, The Addictive Podcast.

Northeast Region

• Students from the Northeast Region attended the New Hampshire Presidential Primary College Convention to raise the youth voice on drug policy reform in the 2016 elections.
• Leland Radovanovic (CUNY Baruch) and Rebecca Dayan (Sarah Lawrence College) represented SSDP at a UN University event at the United Nations entitled “Identifying Common Ground for UNGASS 2016: Rethinking Metrics to Evaluate Drug Policy.”

Southeast Region

• Members of University of North Georgia SSDP and University of Georgia SSDP attended the annual “Wild Hog Supper” where they were able to interact with a number of elected officials and talk with them about medical marijuana reform and marijuana decriminalization in the state of GA.
• Daniel Miles from COllege of Charleston SSDP was appointed as a Senator of Student Government Association.

Southwest Region

• Matthew Aragon from Volcano VIsta High School got an “On the Record” written response from NM Senator Mark Udall regarding marijuana legalization.
• Monique Chavez from University of New Mexico Law School is interning at the Drug Policy Alliance office in NM.
• Zack Brown from Texas A&M University Law School is interning at the ACLU with Jessalyn McCurdym focusing on sentencing reform and clemency.

International Region

• Dan Kirby (Dublin City University) will be testifying at the Ministry of Health  to discuss the new Irish drug strategy, which will include legalizing safe injection facilities. They are also going to push for centralized pill testing at these facilities.
• Penny Hill, an SSDP Ambassador at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, has made tremendous strides in re-establishing our SSDP network in Australia. She has made contact with students at 8 different schools and is planning an aggressive O-week recruitment campaign at the beginning of February.

 

New chapters

Midwest Region

• University of Wisconsin Green Bay (WI)

Pacific Region

• Portland State University (OR)

Northeast

• University of Massachusetts Amherst (MA)

Heartland Region

• Mankato State University (MN)

 

Upcoming Events (chapter and partner orgs)

International

• February 4: 3rd Annual Irish SSDP Conference in Cork, Ireland
• April 15: 2016 Students for Sensible Drug Policy Conference; Washington, DC

Northeast Region

• February 4, 7:00PM: State of the Cannabis Industry NYC
• February 22, 9:00AM: SSDP New York State Lobby Day

Midwest Region

• February 17, 9:00AM: Illinois NORML Lobby Day

Mountain Region

• February 3, 7:00PM: University of Colorado Boulder Weekly Movie Screenings
• February 4, 9:00PM: A Sensible Celebration
• February 25, 7:00PM: University of Denver Law School is screening Bringing it Home at 2255 E. Evans Ave., Denver 80210

Pacific Region

• February 2, 1:00PM: SSDP CSULB First meeting of the semester!
• February 4, 5:00PM: Psychedelic Therapy Presentation at Western Washington University
• February 11, 7:00PM: MDMA Health, Safety, and Legality at UC Irvine School of Law
• February 17, 7:00PM: Psychedelic Awareness Salon: Ayahuasca and Chinese Medicine

 

SSDP Staff Recommended reading/links/resources

Tyler: Take over your student government and end the drug war.

Jake: African leaders want drug use decriminalized in new strategy

Frances: Food of the Gods by Terrence McKenna

Scott: Women and Drugs in the Americas, A report written by the Organization of American States