Written by Abhi Dewan ‘18 and Rob Hofmann ‘16

Students for Sensible Drug Policy’s success in changing drug policy relies on the tireless work of our grassroots network of youth advocates who are passionate about the change they want to see in their world. That change has taken place on the campus, local, state, regional, nationwide, and international levels, with help from our global SSDP team. With the U.S. members of the SSDP network mainly organizing in virtual spaces for now, we believed we should make a formal space for our U.S. members to collaborate on policy change efforts at the federal level and across state lines. With our Schooling Congress on Drug Policy week of action last week, we thought now would be a great time to formally introduce SSDP’s U.S. Policy Council! The U.S. Policy Council is comprised of SSDP alumni, Board, team, and network members who have committed to advance SSDP’s policy agenda through providing analysis, resources, and mentorship to SSDP chapter members. The U.S. Policy Council will become SSDP’s member-driven policy arm on U.S. policy issues, which supports members in advocacy from the campus to the federal level. Policy Council members will lead the work on our issue groups, which will create, update, and maintain our campaign resources, including our public toolkits and our Phone2Action campaigns.

As we try to move the needle from fear-based, hateful policies to sensible policies based on compassion, science, and evidence-based approaches to drugs and drug policy, we need your support to develop our Policy Council. Please join the U.S. Policy Council using the sign-up form here!