SSDP
Does
College
Park:
Sixth
Annual
National
Conference
Shows
Off
a
Maturing
Organization
11/26/04
The beats were breaking and the dance floor was shaking upstairs at Lupo's Chop House a block south of the University of Maryland campus in College Park last Saturday night as nearly 300 members of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (http://www.ssdp.org) marked the completion of the group's sixth annual national conference. The hard partying came only after a rigorous three days of speeches, lectures, workshops, and congressional lobbying. Formed by a handful of students at the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1998, SSDP has since become the leading force for drug reform among university students, with active chapters at around a hundred campuses and new chapter information requests flowing steadily into SSDP's headquarters in nearby Washington, DC. The group, led this year by former UC Berkeley student Scarlett Swerdlow, has, naturally enough, focused on a drug policy issue dear to students: repealing the Higher Education Act's (HEA) anti-drug provision. Under the HEA anti-drug provision, anyone with a drug conviction -- no matter how minor -- is denied federal student financial aid for a specified period (one year for a first possession offense, two years for a first distribution offense). Since the provision, authored by Indiana Republican drug warrior Rep. Mark Souder, came into effect, some 157,000 students have lost educational opportunities through the loss of financial aid. Now, however, SSDP faces something of a dilemma, with a "fix" for the HEA anti-drug provision being touted by Rep. Souder. Under Souder's fix, which he claims is what he intended all along, only people who got busted while attending college would lose their financial aid. While SSDP welcomes any move that reduces the deleterious impact of the anti-drug provision, it remains fully committed to full repeal. "Whether or not a small reform occurs, SSDP will continue to advocate for repeal of the provision in its entirety. It remains the key issue for us," said executive director Scarlett Swerdlow, who added that she is not at all certain the Souder fix will pass. "Grappling with this is difficult because there are students and people who want to go to school who would be helped by this proposal. On the other hand, we don't want some partial reform to take the wind out of our sails. Our message remains that we want the provision repealed, and we will let legislators know that the things that are wrong with the provision now would still be wrong if that passed. The Souder fix is no fix," she said. But the students' interest in drug policy extends beyond self-interest. In the SSDP National Congress held during the conference, in addition to renewing its goal of repealing the HEA anti-drug provision, the group's chapters voted to reiterate their pre-existing positions in favor of the application of harm reduction principles to drug policy and against the drug testing of high school students and US policy in Colombia. And in their first step outside the strict parameters of drug policy, SSDP chapters also voted to support efforts to end the disenfranchisement of people with felony convictions -- and not just drug felonies. "There was some discussion about limiting this to people with drug offenses," said Swerdlow, "but for many people there was a principled position that this should include all offenses. There is so much wrong with the war on drugs that the drug war will continue to be our main focus, but in order to organize and create and join coalitions it is useful to address the larger context," she told DRCNet. "A lot of the problems with drug policy mirror problems in the overall criminal justice system in general." While the National Congress met Friday night, the SSDP conference actually got underway the previous day as some 40 groups of freshly arrived students donned their best garb and met with their representatives on Capitol Hill, lobbying primarily around the HEA anti-drug provision. "This was the first time we tried direct lobbying on the Hill," said SSDP national outreach coordinator Abby Bair. "While it will take time to see what impact we had, it is already clear going to Congress has given some of our members a whole new view of how national politics works," she told DRCNet. "Besides, we've exhausted every other way to effect change." Friday was a day devoted largely to the nuts and bolts of organizing and effecting that desired change. From "Making a Dynamic SSDP Chapter" to "Engaging the Political Process" and "Using the Media" to "Revolutionizing Student Government," conference goers heard what works from those who made it work. SSDP communications director Tom Angell took students through the intricacies of press release and media advisory writing, while the SSDP SUNY New Paltz crew explained how one of their own, Justin Holmes, managed to get himself elected chair of the student senate. Similarly, SSDP legislative director Ross Wilson introduced students to the intricacies of finding a way to win in Washington, while SSDP campus activists Gabrielle Guzzardo (University of New Mexico), Danielle Schumacher (University of Illinois) and Trevor Stutz (Brown University) explained what they had done to turn their chapters into powerhouses. "This conference was really useful because we got to interact with and learn from people who share the same goals and see what really works," said an appreciative Leslie Greene, 23, a University of California Santa Cruz student attending her first national convention. "It has been really inspiring and motivating. I've learned a lot." If Friday was for practicalities, Saturday was a day for the big picture, as drug reform luminaries addressed the gathered students to offer their wisdom and encouragement. Marijuana Policy Project (http://www.mpp.org) head Rob Kampia, Drug Policy Alliance (http://www.drugpolicy.org) head Ethan Nadelmann, Connecticut-based reformer Cliff Thornton (http://www.efficacy.org), and Americans for Safe Access (http://www.safeaccessnow.org) head Steph Sherer were among the big names participating. In a hard-edged speech, Sherer, who was visibly displaying the symptoms of the injuries she suffered at the hands of a Washington, DC, policeman -- the injuries that changed her trajectory from anti-globalization activist to medical marijuana defender -- urged students to be revolutionary, not reformist on drug policy. Students should keep their eyes on the prize, Sherer said. "If you want to end drug prohibition, then ask for it," Sherer said. "You can negotiate from there." Cliff Thornton of the Connecticut-based group Efficacy echoed similar sentiments during the same session. While Sherer and Thornton's words and sentiments were appreciated, SSDP itself has not decided whether to embrace a position calling outright for legalization. "This is something we have not addressed and need to work on," said Swerdlow. "It is important tactically that we have a strategic vision and are able to tell people what that vision is and what we want in the end. Similarly, having an overarching goal will help us put things in context as we take on other campaigns." But with this year's national conference over and done with, whether SSDP will decide to embrace ending prohibition as a formal goal is a question that will have to wait. While it is safe to say there was a consensus among attendees and speakers alike about radically changing current drug policies, not all speakers were ready to call for an end to the drug war. UCLA sociologist Mark Kleiman was perhaps the most provocative presenter. In a debate with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (http://www.leap.cc) representative Jim Gierach, a former prosecutor from Cook County, Illinois, Kleiman challenged SSDP to address the harms of drug use as well as the harms of prohibition and advocated for drug courts, drug testing, and even licensing for "problematic" drug users. Kleiman called on SSDP and other drug reform groups to not be too one-sided. "The debate over drug reform largely consists of two sides screaming at each other," he said. "SSDP should indeed be sensible, and it should recognize not only the damage done by prohibition but also the damage done by drug abuse." Although Kleiman couched his argument in the garb of "reducing net aggregate harm" from drug use and efforts to control it, his advocacy of intrusive measures to control drug use did not sit well with many. "I don't agree with a lot of what Kleiman said, but if we are going to be successful as a movement, we have to address his arguments," said SSDP board member Matt Atwood. "We know that inside our movement, people have differing views about what should be done, and we thought we would address some of those issues," said Bair. "We brought in Kleiman because he is a respected academic representing the public policy approach to this issue and we need to hear what he has to say. Our job as an organization is indeed to figure out what is a sensible drug policy," she explained. "We used this weekend as an opportunity to brainstorm, and Kleiman certainly gave people something to think about." With six years as an organization, SSDP is now well into its second generation of students, and if this conference is any indication, well down the road of institutional maturity. "The question of what we advocate is something we've always struggled with," said Swerdlow. "Now we are really beginning to tackle it and we are beginning to understand the importance of having an end game. We are finally talking openly about our long-term vision and values. That's part of the growth process." SSDP's institutional maturity also shows up in other ways. "One of the most striking things about this year's conference is the caliber of the students," noted Bair. "Some of them were SSDP undergrads, and now they're in grad school or law school and they're gaming the academic system to advance SSDP goals. The newer students will benefit by going down the paths cleared by these trailblazers."
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