SSDP FIGHTS FOR DRUG POLICY REFORM

This week, the Students for a Sensible Drug Policy sponsored Drug
Policy Week, putting on a series of events to increase the visibility
of drug legalization issues on campus. SSDP freshman member Constance
Sisk said she hoped that the week would raise awareness and "erase
some of the stigma" associated with the organization and drug use.

Sanho Tree, director for drug policy studies at the Institute of
Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. and a member of the national board
of directors for SSDP, spoke Monday night about Plan Columbia, a
federal initiative to halt the growing of coca in the region.
According to Tree, although the plan was originally intended to end
poverty and build infrastructure in the conflict-torn country and was
backed by western European countries, it has not worked as described.

Tree pointed out that herbicides sprayed from helicopters to kill coca
crops harm the environment, cause skin and respiratory problems among
people living in the area and kill any legal crops planted nearby.

Tuesday, the club hosted a screening of the film "Busted," a
docu-drama about what to do during a police encounter.

"We hope that students came away with an understanding of how to
assert their fourth and fifth amendment rights," freshman club member
Evan Doboga said.

The club also passed out American Civil Liberties Union wallet cards
at the University Center to help students understand their rights if
stopped by the police.

At 4:20 p.m. Wednesday, the club held a smoke-out in the Sunken
Gardens featuring guitar music, cigarette-rolling classes and smoking
tobacco in hookah pipes. The organizers of the event stressed that the
smoke-out was intended to make a political statement, not to condone
substance abuse.

"We weren't trying to glorify or promote illegal drug use," McLean
said.

Yesterday, the organization hosted speaker Peter Christ, a retired
police captain who worked in law enforcement for 20 years and was a
captain for three. He represented Law Enforcement Against Prohibition,
an international nonprofit organization with about 2,500 members,
including 250 law enforcement officers, who strive to inform the
public about the arguments in favor of drug legalization.

"It's a long educational process because we haven't really talked
about this as a society," Christ said. "The most common response we
get after a presentation is, 'I never thought about it this way before.'"

Drawing parallels to boxing and the alcohol prohibition of the 1920s,
Christ argued that prohibition of drugs does not halt the sale of
illegal substances but rather it merely drives the market underground,
empowering the gangs that sell them, funding terrorist organizations
and effectively deregulating production and sales.

"Not one society that has ever used prohibition to solve any of these
problems has ever been successful," Christ said. "Opium is now cheaper
and purer and more available on the streets of America than in any
period in history."

Christ made a distinction between laws that protect citizens from harm
and those that merely prohibit a consensual transaction.

"We are granted this right [to punish law breakers] because our job is
to protect people from each other," he said. He argued that substance
laws do not fall into that category. He also differentiated between
drug use-related crimes and drug transaction-related crimes, which he
said make up 85 percent of the drug-related violence reported in newspapers.

SSDP was formed in the early 1990s, and its chapter at the College was
founded four years ago. Earlier this year, the organization
successfully lobbied the Student Assembly to pass a bill condemning
the Higher Education Act of 1998, which states that students convicted
of a drug crime may not receive government financial assistance. No
other crime precludes a student from receiving such aid.

The week's final event, the Love and Understanding Festival, will
feature the live bands Seed Is, Centaur and the Merry Gypsies, and
will be held tomorrow at 4 p.m. in the Crim Dell meadow.