STUDENTS PREPARE TO BATTLE DRUG WAR

The University of Rhode Island's Students for Sensible Drug Policy
discussed many current issues in regards to drug policy reform, at
regional conference for their organization over the past weekend,
including racism and draconian laws.

Over 50 students from about a dozen schools attended the conference.
The students came from Brown and as far away as Columbia and Rochester
Institute of Technology in New York. The speakers included former
police and military personnel as well as others whose lives had been
directly affected by drugs.

The conference began with Shawn Heller, the national director of SSDP.
Heller remarked on the changes the drug reform movement has
experienced in the recent past.

"The media has realized that the American public wants to see this
cause from the righteous standpoint," Heller said. "People know [drug
reformers] are not talking about giving drugs to young children,
they're talking about lifting prohibition."

Cliff Thornton, a founder of the progressive group Efficacy, spoke at
the conference on the connection between the Drug War and racism.

"This is the most important social problem we'll ever face in our
lifetime. We already pay the price [for the Drug War] but it's going
to be worse. This [Drug War] has retarded the black community,"
Thornton said.

He mentioned that while blacks are only 15 percent of drug users, they
are 35 percent of those arrested for possession. He also cited U.S.
Center for Disease Control statistics that white children ages 12-17
were twice as likely to binge drink, sell drugs and carry drugs to
school.

President of Common Sense for Drug Policy Kevin Zeese spoke about what
he said were heavy-handed government drug policies in the U.S.

"There continues to be an aggressive attack by the federal government
in California against the seriously ill," Zeese said.

Zeese said that the government set up "kangaroo courts" for
prosecuting people in California who had been given state permits to
grow marijuana for medicinal purposes, but were charged by the federal
government for illegally growing the plant and portrayed as drug
traffickers in court.

Retired New Jersey State Police Lieutenant Jack Cole, a former
undercover narcotics officer and executive director of Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition, spoke about the effects that the Drug
War is having on the country.

"In this country, we are destroying young people's lives needlessly,"
Cole said. "[Drug policy] is perhaps the most important thing we can
work on in this country and this world."

The conference also featured breakout sessions hosted by a member of
the American Civil Liberties Union and a former Naval intelligence
officer, among others. The sessions featured information about how to
make a cause visible and how to run an organization effectively.

Tom Angell, President of SSDP described the importance of the
conference he helped to organize.

"[The conference] gets young leaders in the movement together. The
ultimate goal of this conference is to have these students go back to
their universities and bring the knowledge they've learned," Angell
said.