Heading to DC for SSDP!

After five longs days incommunicado in darkest Dakota, I am crawling out of my cave and heading for the East Coast to check out the Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) conference this weekend in Washington. It takes a lot to draw this High Plains drifter to the big city, but the SSDP conference looks to be worth it. First of all, it's always a gas to see the latest generation of drug reformers emerging, and what better place than a conference designed to pull in student activists from across the country. I've been fighting the good fight for drug reform for years, but I never cease to be amazed at the new energy and new ideas that are always bubbling up from the kids. I'm sure they're going to teach me something again this year. It doesn’t hurt either that the conference has an all-star roster of speakers and presenters including not only numerous drug reform luminaries, but also media figures like political commentator Bill Press of MSNBC and widely syndicated Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page. But I especially look forward to seeing some of my fellow toilers in the trenches of drug war journalism; folks whose work I look up to like Reason Magazine's Radley Balko and Pete Guither of the Drug War Rant. And, well, shucks, those nice kids at SSDP have also invited to join one of their panels, "International Affairs: Drug Policy at the Global Level," so I thought I better take them up on that offer. I'll be talking about Afghanistan. Come check it out—not just my panel, but the conference as a whole. The SSDP web site has a complete program guide. I'll see you there.