SSDP’s international organising and relations is funded through the International Activities Fund. Please make a gift here here.

Author: Iulia Vatau ‘19, University College London (UCL) Chapter Leader & SSDP UK Committee member

For the Support. Don’t Punish Global Day of Action, the SSDP UK Committee organised two webinars as part of Paradigma’s Decentralised Youth Drug Policy Conference, an Instagram and sticker campaign.

We had stickers distributed across all major UK cities, including London, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh, while our Instagram campaign saw SSDP members, partner university societies and NGO organisations raising together awareness on the need for drug policy reform.

In the process, we formed strong, long-term partnerships with student groups such as Durham and UCL Amnesty International, the UCL Justice Collective, as well as national and international level organisations, including Drug & Me, the Labour Campaign for Drug Policy Reform and the Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group.

We worked alongside media outlets such as Palatinate, TakingDrugs, Volteface and MyPOV to bring attention to the coercive methods of combating drug use and trafficking traditionally celebrated by world’s governments on the 26th of June and advocate, as a result for a more human rights oriented, harm-reduction driven drug policy reform.

Our first webinar for the Global Day of Action, focused on drug policy advocacy training, with speakers from the International Drug Policy Consortium, Transform Drug Policy Foundation and SSDP Global reflecting upon the current structures, failures and challenges of the UK and international system of drug control, as well as on the crucial role of youth activism.

Our second webinar explored the alternative approach to punishment proposed by restorative justice, with speakers and educators from Decarceration Nation and Amplify RJ. Drawing on the experiences of a former US inmate, the session delved into the restorative theoretical foundations and their practical applications in drug policy.

SSDP’s international organising and relations is funded through the International Activities Fund. Please make a gift here here.