BANG! POW! SSDP's TOP TEN EXPLOSIVE STORIES OF 2009

No matter how you slice it, 2009 was a monumental turning point for
Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) and for the drug policy
reform movement as a whole.

I love the "Top 10" lists that our friends at the Drug Policy
Alliance, the Marijuana Policy Project, and StopTheDrugWar.org
compiled, summarizing the beginning of the end of the War on Drugs.

They are stories that will be taught in high school civics classes in
years to come. But there are hundreds of stories you may not have
heard about in 2009: unsung heroes on campuses worldwide, playing a
pivotal role in ending the destructive War on Drugs.

It was hard to pick just ten, but here they are...

Students vs. The Drug War: SSDP's Top Ten Stories of 2009

1) Students Triumph Over Bad Drug Law in Congress: On September 17th,
the congressman who wrote a 1998 law that denies financial aid to
students with drug convictions conceded: "I knew I was probably going
to lose today." And he did. Two days earlier, it appeared that Rep.
Souder's amendment would pass, which would have left his
anti-education law fully intact. But after SSDP chapters across the
country inspired tens of thousands of people to call Congress in less
than 48 hours, the tables quickly turned, and Rep. Souder was forced
to back down and compromise. Once the bill passes in 2010, hundreds
of thousands of students with drug possession convictions will be
able to go back to school!

More: http://ssdp.org/victory

2) SSDP Chapters Lead the Demise of Marijuana Prohibition in Rhode
Island: In September, the Providence Journal published an article
entitled, "Brown, URI students played key role in R.I. marijuana
debate," which told the story of how SSDP chapters led the way for
Rhode Island to become the third state to establish legal medical
marijuana dispensaries. SSDP chapters in RI have been so successful
at building relationships with key policy-makers that the state's
senate is now taking a serious look at fully legalizing marijuana!

More: http://bit.ly/H3mBG

3) Students Display Courage in the Face of Violence in El Paso, TX:
In January, SSDP member Nubia Legarda testified at a city council
debate on legalizing drugs to stop the violence in Mexico. Nubia's
family lives in the bordering city of Ciudad Juarez, a place that has
been torn apart by the bloody wars between rival cartels. After
Nubia's moving testimony received media coverage and thousands of
views on YouTube, her SSDP chapter quickly became a driving force
leading the debate over drug policy in El Paso.

More: http://ssdp.org/elpaso

4) Students Protest Police Shooting of Fellow Student: In March,
campuses in Michigan erupted after Derek Copp, an unarmed Grand
Valley State University student, was shot and nearly killed by police
over a gram of marijuana. SSDP chapters across the state ensured that
the media framed this as an inevitable consequence of a violent War
on Drugs rather than as an avoidable mistake made by police. They
also helped to raise hundreds of dollars to assist Derek with his
medical bills.

More: http://ssdp.org/derek

5) U.S. Students Stand with Mexico on Cinco De Mayo: In May, dozens
of SSDP chapters stood in solidarity with the people of Mexico to
protest the bloodshed caused by drug prohibition. A TV news spot
covering the University of Maryland's action was viewed by countless
residents of the Washington, DC area.

More: http://ssdp.org/cincodemayo

6) Drug Policies Reformed at Campuses Nationwide: All year long, SSDP
chapters worked on "campus change campaigns," and more than a dozen
chapters successfully altered their campus's polices. These changes
include removing police patrols from dorms, reforming unfair judicial
systems, and enacting life-saving Good Samaritan Policies.

More: http://ssdp.org/campuschange

7) SSDP Chats with the Drug Czar: In an unprecedented show of
diplomacy, President Obama's "Drug Czar" invited leaders of the drug
policy reform movement (including myself) to a conference call in
which we discussed our vision for the future of drug policy. While it
remains to be seen if the White House will take cues from our
conversation, this represents a significant step in the right direction.

8) The Grassroots Student Movement Rapidly Expands: For the first
time in SSDP's history, SSDP's supporters donated enough money to
employ three full-time outreach directors - and just in the nick of
time! In the past year, our chapter network has grown to include more
than 200 chapters, half of which are new chapters receiving official
campus recognition this year. We currently receive more than three
new chapter startup inquiries every single day.

More: http://ssdp.org/chapters

9) An International Drug Policy Reform Movement is Born: In 2009,
SSDP's U.S. and Canadian networks welcomed the establishment of
international affiliates in the United Kingdom and Nigeria, and we've
worked to build budding networks in areas of South America, Asia, and
Europe. Former SSDP Executive Director Kris Krane participated in
high-level U.N. meetings on drug policy in Vienna, and received a
standing ovation for his mediation of a conflict with opposition groups.

More: http://ssdp.org/unitednations

10) Chase Cheats SSDP Out Of Charity Competition, Thousands Drop
Chase in Response: In 2009, SSDP's website was viewed nearly half a
million times, while more than 400,000 people joined our networks on
Facebook, and our YouTube videos reached more than 400,000 views. So
it was no surprise that SSDP dominated an online charity competition
in which Chase Bank asked Facebook users to vote for nonprofits to
receive grants of $25,000 to $1 million. However, when Chase
deceptively cheated SSDP out of the winnings, SSDP slammed Chase in
the pages of the New York Times, and more than two-thousand SSDP
supporters pledged to drop their accounts with Chase.

More: http://chaseboycott.com

Finally: Let's celebrate the progress we've made in 2009. But let's
also not forget that we need to keep working twice as hard in 2010.
Worldwide, millions of people sit behind bars for what they've put
into their own bodies; entire communities are torn apart by the
violence and corruption caused by the black market; and drug cartels
grow more rich and powerful than ever before.

Here's at least one story that I hope to report at the end of 2010:

1) Hundreds of Small Donations Fund a Growing Grassroots Movement:
Despite the recession forcing many of SSDP's major donors to cut back
on their funding in 2010, hundreds of SSDP alumni and supporters
pitched in online this year, comprising nearly $52,000 of our budget,
and tripling the amount of small donations received in 2009. Because
of your generosity, SSDP's staff has continued to expand in
proportion to the growing movement for reform.

More: http://ssdp.org/donate

Happy New Year!

Micah

Micah Daigle, Executive Director

Students for Sensible Drug Policy