Over the course of 20 years, Students for Sensible Drug Policy members have come together in our communities, at conferences, and across oceans because we understand this: the War on Drugsis an affront to human rights, cognitive liberty, and evidence-based approaches to drugs and the people who use them. We don’t agree on everything — some days, we don’t agree on much! — but we do agree that no one should be denied their best future because they use drugs, that access to harm reduction interventions and qualified treatment should be abundant, and that young people’s voices will propel decision makers to sensible solutions to our toughest concerns.

Today we honor 20 years of chapter meetings, sit-ins, marches, petitions, lobby days, strategy sessions, drafting meetings, coalition building, phone banking, and — sometimes — dancing, and we plan for 20 more. We hope you’ll celebrate with us by making a gift of any amount, planning to attend a birthday party, or broadcasting your support by changing your profile picon social media.

2,000 Policy Change Initiatives

38 Countries

1,223 Campuses

38,000 Alumni Members

CAT LEADERBOARD

Click here to view the Chapter Activity Tracker

1. University of Pittsburgh
2. EPSD Mexico
3. United Methodist University
4. University of Vienna
5. Ferris State University
6. University College Dublin
7. SUNY Binghamton
8. University of North Georgia Gainesville
9. University of Texas Austin
10. Hamline University

MAKING SENSE

Higher Education Act Reform

• SSDP organized a multi-year coalition to reform the Higher Education Act by taking the fangs out of the Aid Elimination Penalty, which had previously restricted anyone convicted of a drug-related offense from receiving financial aid. Now, we’re working to eliminate the question altogether.

Cannabis policy reform

• SSDP members have been involved in nearly every major cannabis policy reform in the US, Canada, Mexico, Columbia, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, and more. We’ve knocked doors, registered voters, educated our communities, drafted language, acted as spokespeople, directed campaigns, and raised funds to end marijuana prohibition everywhere.

Harm reduction

• SSDP members have expanded access to naloxone and syringe exchange, raised awareness and increased access to drug checking, improved public health programs for people who use drugs, and increased prevalence of harm reduction responses on campus and beyond. We work and volunteer in front-line service, provide treatment, and create harm reduction spaces on our campuses. We talk to everyone we know about carrying naloxone, and we’ve reversed countless overdoses.

911 Good Samaritan Policies

• By ensuring people can call for help in the case of an overdose from alcohol or any other drug without fear of sanction, we have saved lives in hundreds of campus communities and dozens of other jurisdictions.

Drug education

• Cutting-edge peer-to-peer drug education is now available anywhere thanks to our very own Just Say Know program. With 140+ students trained to deliver modules on the drugs most commonly found on campus, we’re radically increasing campus safety and raising awareness for tens of thousands of young people.

Co-creating a more sensible future

• We won’t all spend our lives advocating for drug policy reform or in service to people who use drugs. But we are all committed to imbuing safety, justice, and education in our communities’ responses to drugs and the people who use them, and we take those values with us after we graduate. We vote. We call our elected officials. We show up to meetings and sit on task forces. We talk to our neighbors. And we demand that drug policies start making sense.

EVENTS

Regional Conferences

• Northeast Regional Conferece | October 6 at SUNY Birmingham
• Midwest Regional Conference | October 13 at Kent State University
• Southeast Regional Conference | October 26-28 at University of Georgia
• Southwest Regional Conference | November 3 at University of Texas Austin
• European regional Conference | November 10-11
• Pacific Regional Conference | December 1-2 at UC Santa Barbara
• SSDP2019 | March 29-31, 2019 near Chicago, IL

Birthday parties

• October 5 in Seattle, WA
• October 9 in Portland, OR
• October 26 in Denver, CO
• COMING SOON: Oakland, CA and New York, NY