Written by: Sarah Noon ‘18, Oakland Community College SSDP President Students for Sensible Drug Policy chapters from Oakland Community College and Wayne State University organized and coordinated a breakout session on the topic of sensible drug policy at Michigan Democratic Institution for Civic Engagement’s 2020 Student Engagement Conference. Sarah Noon ‘18, president and founder of OCC SSDP, serves as the
Eighty-two years ago today, the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act effectively banned the sale and use of cannabis in the United States. The support garnered to pass this act was propelled by racist fearmongering. While the Marihuana Tax Act was overturned in 1969 through a ruling in the Supreme Court case Leary v. United States, marijuana prohibition was rolled up into
Our federal leaders are getting closer than ever to ending marijuana prohibition. In every legislative session, the status quo shifts, and more legislators are realizing that to be on the right side of history- and to keep their jobs- they must support marijuana policy reform. We made another step forward this week as our House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism
Even as marijuana policy reforms advance in places like Oklahoma and Vermont, prohibitionist policies keep people chained to past convictions. According to data from the NAACP, having a drug conviction on one’s record can reduce the likelihood of a callback or job offer by nearly 50%, limiting opportunities for meaningful employment for people with previous criminal convictions – who are