SSDP DOES NOT ENDORSE DRUG USE

To the Editor:

In an April 14 front-page story ("Hold the foam: passing on Spring
Weekend," April 14), an event sponsored by Students for Sensible Drug
Policy was used as evidence that campus gets wild and crazy during
Spring Weekend. The following is a clarification of our mission,
because the representation of our group was far from positive.

I want to clarify on behalf of Students for Sensible Drug Policy that
we in no way endorse or romanticize drug use. Our mission as a
grassroots student organization is to change the wrongheaded drug
policies, as well as the culture of abuse, that permeate our society.
The Herald article attempted to use an SSDP-sponsored event - the
lending out of an ecstasy testing chemical kit - as evidence of how
crazy things get at Brown during Spring Weekend.

Our event was grossly misappropriated in the article. A quote from
our Facebook event page was taken completely out of context, and we
want to explicitly reject any association of reckless or
irresponsible behavior with our goals and missions as a student
group. We are providing an information service. However regrettable
the fact may be for some, Brown students will consume unidentified
pills and powders they bought from strangers. The purpose of our
service is to enable students to know what they are consuming so they
can make an educated decision instead of a blind guess.

So counter to what one might think from reading the article, our role
is not to praise inherently risky drug use. Rather, we aim to create
an anonymous, non-judgmental space where students can become more
informed before making a potentially lethal decision.

Jared Moffat '13

Students for Sensible Drug Policy president