Giving Tuesday is an opportunity to use your individual power of generosity to support the nonprofit organizations that you believe in most. SSDP is the largest nationwide network of young people working to replace the War on Drugs with policies rooted in evidence, compassion, and human rights.
SSDP mobilizes and empowers young people to participate in the political process and brings young people of all political and ideological orientations together to have honest conversations about drugs and drug policy.
Last week, we concluded our historic court hearing with the DEA to save psychedelic research, and we are standing firm with the President to free all cannabis prisoners before the end of his term.
Our work is challenging yet impactful and we need your help to continue our mission, to support and grow our campaign initiatives, and to continue to serve our community. Here are our Top 5 Reasons you should consider donating to SSDP today on Giving Tuesday…
SSDP is the only drug policy organization fighting to keep DOI and DOC legal. The DEA wants to add DOI and DOC—two crucial research chemicals that have been used safely in labs for decades and have become the de facto tools for researchers studying serotonin receptors because they are unscheduled—to Schedule I of the controlled Substances Act, which would essentially shut down potentially lifesaving research into anxiety, depression, pain management, substance use disorder, and even cancer. SSDP’s Science Policy Committee—a group of PhD students and other researchers who are fighting back against the War on Drugs with SSDP—is standing in their way, building a legal case against scheduling and testifying on the stand in the DEA’s own court while helping win in the court of public opinion through a mass media campaign to educate the public on how criminalizing DOI and DOC would devastate public health.
SSDP has also been an integral player in the fight to deschedule marijuana. In addition to filing our own public comment on marijuana scheduling, as well as joining comments submitted on behalf of the Marijuana Justice Coalition and United Marijuana Decrim, SSDP helped create, manage, and promote a simple tool to easily submit a public comment in support of descheduling marijuana. Of the 42,925 public comments submitted on marijuana rescheduling, 24% of them—10,327 total public comments—came through SSDP’s public comment tool, a significant number of which were submitted by SSDP members and alumni!
SSDP has met with every single office in both the Senate and the House of Representatives at least once this year, advocating for marijuana descheduling, cannabis clemency and retroactive justice, psychedelic research, and more.
We were invited to participate in multiple meetings with the Office of the Vice President and White House staff regarding marijuana rescheduling and descheduling and cannabis clemency and helped push forward the proposed marijuana rescheduling rule.
We helped build and mobilize the largest ever bipartisan coalition of marijuana advocacy, industry, and grassroots organizations in U.S. history for a 420 lobby day during which we educated elected officials and their staff about the ways in which the criminalization of marijuana negatively impacts our members, including by obstructing our members’ ability to obtain employment, education, and housing.
We took a selfie (and got commitments on retroactive relief) with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), enjoyed a private lunch with Rep. Ilhan Omar (and Hollywood actress Rosario Dawson), featured on Rep. Ayanna Presley’s Instagram page, stood up for cannabis clemency in press conferences alongside Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, Rep. James Clyburne, Sen. Ron Wyden, and more, and were invited to retirement parties for Rep. Earl Blumenaur and Rep. Barbara Lee, using each opportunity to push harder for sensible policies to end the War on Drugs.
And, we weren’t afraid to make some noise when we weren’t being heard. SSDP helped organize a vigil in front of the White House for victims of the War on Drugs with over 300 participants featuring poignant stories from those who had spent decades in prison for marijuana and the family members left behind. Our goal was to remind President Biden of his campaign promises to legalize marijuana, let all cannabis prisoners free, and clear their records—and to draw media attention to these issues—and it worked. Following the vigil, President Biden granted clemency to 16 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, though close to 3000 people are still serving long term sentences in federal prisons for cannabis-related crimes. (Call President Biden today and tell him to keep his promise!)
SSDP is a national organization with a local feel. Our chapters address the most urgent issues in their communities, creating change from the local level up.
SSDP student activists in Michigan went head-to-head with Lake Superior State University (LSSU) over medical cannabis on campus. LSSU’s President refused to let SSDP create safe spaces for patients to use medical cannabis, instead making rude remarks that were caught on tape by a school trustee. SSDP-LSSU Chapter President (and LSSU Student Council Vice President) Jackson Rund led the charge and LSSU’s student government issued a no confidence resolution, forcing the president to step down, clearing the way for SSDP-LSSU to reintroduce the amendment for safe use on campus.
Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, the Susquehanna University chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy in Selinsgrove, PA achieved a major policy victory—they officially obtained approval to distribute naloxone, a life-saving opioid overdose reversal drug, to students on campus.
This huge win came after a year-long battle of navigating the school’s bureaucracy to expand access to harm reduction services. University President Johnathan Green not only gave SSDP permission to distribute naloxone on campus but invited the chapter to speak at Susquehanna University’s International Overdose Awareness Day Vigil on September 1st.
This fall, SSDPers Gina Giorgio and Jonah Martindale criss-crossed Massachusetts working with chapters across the Bay State to raise awareness about Question 4, an initiative to decriminalize plant medicine, ahead of the November elections.
SSDPers around the United States are saving lives from overdose.
SSDPers organized hundreds of overdose reversal trainings on college campuses and at conferences and festivals across the country. We distributed thousands of doses of naloxone and drug checking supply kits. And, because harm reduction saves lives, we worked to change dangerous policies standing in our way.
While Pittsburgh and Philadelphia offer safe syringe programs, Pennsylvania is one of 10 states to not offer these services statewide, but SSDP’s Pennsylvania chapters are leading the charge for sensible policy change. SSDP’s Pittsburgh Community Chapter has been working alongside the Pennsylvania Harm Reduction Network to push elected officials to implement statewide laws allowing Sterile Syringe Services. Meanwhile, the Drexel University SSDP chapter protested increased policing and arrests in Kensington, forced treatment or jailing of drug users, and bans on syringe service programs receiving opioid settlement money.
SSDP harm reductionists across the country have been hard at work with our Drug Education Committee developing a harm reduction training and distribution system that will be launching in the new year.
Since 1998, SSDP has mobilized tens of thousands of young people to advocate for a more sensible approach to drug laws. Countless policy reforms led or supported by SSDPers now protect people from punishment if they call for help during an overdose, help students earn a college education regardless of drug citations, and provide safe access to cannabis for adult or medical use.
SSDPers are peer advocates for sensible drug education and harm reduction, actively saving lives from overdose and helping those with past drug charges clear their criminal records and build back their lives, all while working to change the legal landscape that has created both the overdose crisis and mass incarceration.
We identify talented young people with a passion for building a better world and give them the tools and training to get there, including access to mentorships, fellowships, and other career-advancing programs, scholarships and travel support for conferences and networking opportunities, access to Naloxone, fentanyl test strips, and other harm reduction materials, hands-on experience in public health, advocacy, crisis communications, issue campaigns, peer-support, research, legal action, and more.
Our alumni not only become the future leaders of the drug policy reform and harm reduction movements, but take the tools, experiences, and worldview they gain from SSDP with them into all kinds of different fields and career paths. In this way, not only is SSDP creating a more sensible world one policy victory at a time, but we are also actively shaping the future of law, business, public health, and policy with each additional young person we train.
Individual donations are crucial to our organization, and you can set up a one time donation or monthly donations for as little as only $5 per month.
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