Get Involved!!!
(SSDP Wants to Hear Your Voice)

Spring 2006
Welcome to SSDP@Columbia! To get in touch with us, email
ssdp@columbia.edu.

Columbia SSDP is working overtime to push back ill-conceived drug laws!

Because we can't even keep drugs out of prisons, nevermind closing a 15,000 mile-long border of a FREE and OPEN society!

WE BELIEVE that the war on drugs is a waste of resources and allows moralistic crusaders with dogmatic political and religious agendas to abuse the 20 million Americans who use "politically incorrect" drugs every year. While drug abuse has a significant number of disturbing consequences, 30 years of an escalating "drug war" has led to absurd investments in law enforcement and "zero-tolerance" measures. Tolerating drug use and investing the $60 billion a year in jobs or in treatment would do more to reduce substance abuse than all of the supply-side enforcement in the world.

WE CAN DO BETTER!

LOCKED UP: DRUGS, PRISONS and PRIVELEGE
New York's Rockefeller drug laws are a DISGRACE, and we're proud to welcome David Soares, the underdog who in 2004 beat the Albany County Democratic machine and their pro-Rockefeller incumbent DA candidate to the fold. The election of Soares was one of Columbia SSDP's major initiatives in the 2004-2005 school year.

Arresting cancer and multiple sclerosis patients for using marijuana is DESPICABLE. Our chapter has protested at the departement of Health and Human Services in Washinton, and we're also working with NEW YORKERS FOR COMPASSIONATE CARE to get the support of the New York State Legislature for SAFE ACCESS for patients to a QUALITY supply of medical marijuana!

    Other issues that we are interested in include:

  • Barriers to Higher Education (HEA Drug Provision)
  • Marijuana Policy/ Medical Marijuana
  • Prison Industrial Complex
  • US Drug Policy and Plan Colombia
  • Environmental Protection and Crop Fumigation
  • Harm Reduction and A Public Health Approach to Drug Use
  • Racial Discrimination and Racial Profiling
  • Police Practices
  • Civil Liberties
  • Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
  • Realistic Drug Education (Just Say No to DARE!)
SSDP National was started only seven years ago but today we are one of over 200 nationwide SSDP chapters. What is at the bottom of our rapid growth? We believe that the "War on Drugs" is a War on Youth. We see our own communities negatively affected and many of our members personally affected by injust drug policies. Drug policy issues resonate within the student communities of this country because the very policies that were meant to protect us are hurting us now more than ever!

Check out National SSDP.










02 06 2006   


Columbia Ibogaine Conference 2006

On February 25, 2006, Columbia SSDP is proud to present "The Science and Politics of Ibogaine, Nature's 'Addiction Interrupter'", a multi-faceted look at local, national, and international developments related to this controversial drug.
The conference will take place at Lerner Hall, 115th and Broadway, from 10 am to 5 pm. Lunch will be provided.
Presenters will include:
Howard Lotsof, "Father" of Ibogaine treatment and Founder of the Dora Weiner Foundation
Ken Alper, M.D., NYU Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology and Ibogaine author and expert
Dana Beal, Founder of CuresNotWars and co-author of "The Ibogaine Story"
Jeff Kamlet, M.D. , Ibogaine treatment provider
Patrick Kroupa, Ibogaine activist and Founder of Mindvox
Alan Clear, Editorial Board Director, Harm Reduction Coalition
Brian Vastag, Former JAMA writer and Ibogaine author
Dmitri Mugianis, Ibogaine treatment provider and former patient

Also join us the following day, February 26, at artist Alex Grey's Chapel of Sacred Mirrors for the cultural portion of the event. For more information, please email ssdp@columbia.edu.

Columbia SSDP wins 2005 Outstanding Chapter Award

We are very proud to have received an Outstanding Chapter Award from SSDP National at the 2004 National Conference in College Park, MD. The award was conferred partially in recognition of the success of our first Northeast Regional Conference, hosted at Columbia in October 2004.