Marijuana Prohibition to Blame in Shooting Death of UMD Student

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 14, 2011
CONTACT: Stacia Cosner, SSDP National Associate Director – (410) 299-3433
Lauren Mendelsohn, UMD SSDP (202) 596-7737

Marijuana Prohibition to Blame in Shooting Death of University of Maryland Student
UMD student group says legalization will end drug war violence

College Park, MD. – Officials at Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) charged today that the murder of UMD student Justin DeSha-Overcash on Tuesday is a result of marijuana prohibition policies that actually put young people in more danger than a system of legalization and regulation. DeSha-Overcash, 22 years-old, had a bright future ahead and was slated to graduate in June with a degree in physics and astronomy.

“This isn’t simply a drug related crime as the media is calling it,” explained Stacia Cosner, Associate Director at SSDP. “This is drug-prohibition related violence. We don’t see students shooting one another over alcohol, because it’s legal and there are no black market profits worth protecting.”

SSDP is joining DeSha-Overcash’s friends and family in criticizing Prince George's County Police for placing the blame on the victim, labeling him as a drug dealer simply because marijuana was found at the home.

"As Justin’s friends and family mourn their loss, SSDP members extend their support by emphasizing a positive and fair characterization of his life," said Cosner. "On top of his ambitious schoolwork, he also worked as a teaching assistant and at the campus observatory. He was not simply a drug dealer whose death could somehow be justified by the presence of marijuana in his home as police have suggested."

Lauren Mendelsohn, a member of the UMD chapter of SSDP, expressed her concern about law enforcement’s stated priorities in response to the murder. "A young man lost his life, tragically and with the killer still on the loose. The College Park community is seeking support and assurance that the killer will be brought to justice, but the Prince George's County Police blaming the victim is incredibly concerning. It raises serious questions about their priorities.”

“Police need to start looking at the policies surrounding drugs and evaluating the unintended consequences of prohibition. If marijuana were regulated in a similar way to alcohol, perhaps Justin would still be alive today," says Cosner.

Win Tickets to Slightly Stoopid's Winter Tour!

Slightly Stoopid is one of the many artists on SSDP's AMPLIFY Project that is bringing SSDP tables to most of their shows on their Spring tour. To help spread the word about the work that SSDP does, the band is offering the chance for anyone who signs up on SSDP's action alert list to win 2 free tickets to these upcoming shows:

DATE	VENUE	CITY	TICKETS	RSVP
FEB. 04, 2011	TPC BIRD'S NEST	SCOTTSDALE, AZ	TICKETS
FEB. 16, 2011	9:30 CLUB	WASHINGTON, DC	TICKETS
FEB. 17, 2011	9:30 CLUB	WASHINGTON, DC	TICKETS
FEB. 18, 2011	LUPO'S ON THE STRAND	PROVIDENCE, RI	TICKETS
FEB. 19, 2011	HAMMERSTEIN BALLROOM	NEW YORK, NY	TICKETS
FEB. 20, 2011	HOUSE OF BLUES	ATLANTIC CITY, NJ	TICKETS
FEB. 24, 2011	ORBIT ROOM	GRAND RAPIDS, MI	TICKETS
FEB. 25, 2011	MADISON THEATER	COVINGTON, KY	TICKETS
FEB. 26, 2011	CANNERY BALLROOM	NASHVILLE, TN	TICKETS
FEB. 27, 2011	AMOS' SOUTHEND	CHARLOTTE, NC	TICKETS
MAR. 01, 2011	THE NORVA	NORFOLK, VA	TICKETS
MAR. 02, 2011	THE MUSIC FARM	CHARLESTON, SC	TICKETS
MAR. 03, 2011	JANNUS LIVE	ST. PETERSBURG, FL	TICKETS
MAR. 04, 2011	JANNUS LIVE	ST. PETERSBURG, FL	TICKETS
MAR. 05, 2011	PLUSH	JACKSONVILLE, FL	TICKETS
MAR. 12, 2011	9 MILE MUSIC FESTIVAL	MIAMI, FL	TICKETS
MAY 29, 2011	HOOKAVILLE	THORNVILLE, OH	TICKETS

*Festival tickets are not included in the contest. 

SSDP to Co-Sponsor Series on California's Criminal Justice System at Golden Gate University

A Critical Eye on Criminal Justice The students of Golden Gate Law School’s American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are proud to host a series of panels designed to educate, inform, and reflect on California's criminal justice system. We encourage your attendance to provide insight and speak with others concerning California's criminal justice system. Please see below for more information about each panel: Week 1: Psychology & Law Tuesday, January 18 11:45 AM – 1:00 PM Guest Panelists: Craig Haney, Professor of Psychology at University of Santa Cruz and expert in effects of incarceration Sara Norman, Managing attorney of the Prison Law Office Moderated by Professor Susan Rutberg Week 2: Foundations of the Criminal Justice System Wednesday, January 26 12:00 – 1:00 PM Guest Panelists: James Bell, Founder and Executive Director of the W. Haywood Burns Institute Diana Tate Vermeire, Racial Justice Project Director at the ACLU of Northern California Dorsey Nunn, Executive Director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and co–founder of All of Us or None Week 3: Life in a California Prison Tuesday, February 1 5:00 – 6:30 PM Guest Panelists: Donald Specter, Director of the Prison Law Office Jeanne Woodford, Former warden, San Quentin State Prison Paul Wright, Editor and co-founder of Prison Legal News Moderated by Professor Mort Cohen Week 4: Examining Alternative Movements in Prison Reform Thursday, February 10 12:00 – 1:00 PM Guest Panelists: Judge Jeffery Tauber, Judge in Oakland Municipal Court George Galvis, Educator, consultant, trainer, and speaker in the areas of youth development & organizing, violence prevention, and restorative justice for youth Cynthia Chandler, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Justice Now We hope you will join us in this critical discussion of criminal justice in the midst of historical reform. Thank you for your support. For more information visit our Facebook page or contact: John Robinson at johnbrobinson2@gmail.com or Pouria Yazdi at pouriayazdi@gmail.com. All panels will be held at 536 Mission Street, 2nd Floor Room 2203, San Francisco.

Intern with SSDP!

Join SSDP's National Staff as an Intern! *Warning: you may get pied.

It's the beginning of the Spring semester and many students will need to have internships. Why go the usual route of making copies and fetching coffee when you can intern with SSDP and help change drug policy!

We have some great opportunities available in both our Washington, D.C. and San Francisco offices.

Graphic Design Intern
Washington, DC or San Francisco, CA
Graphic Design Intern / Hourly
Unpaid, with class credit available
Starts: Monday 17, January 2011

Membership Coordination Fellow
Washington, DC or San Francisco, CA
Membership Coordination Fellow / HourlyUnpaid, class credit available
Starts: Monday 17, January 2011

Social Media Intern
Washington, DC or San Francisco, CA
Social Media Intern / Hourly
Unpaid, with class credit available
Starts: Monday 17, January 2011

Web Team Intern
Washington, DC or San Francisco, CA
Web Team Intern / Hourly
Unpaid, with class credit available
Starts: Monday 17, January 2011

Come join the SSDP team for an amazing experience working in drug policy reform. Apply today!


*Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and start times are flexible.

Human Rights and Harm Reduction: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

YouthRISE and the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) have partnered to produce a document on Human Rights and Harm Reduction from a child's legal perspective. A focus on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) gives the authors opportunity to discuss what children's rights may be violated when states attempt to protect them from illicit drug use.

The authors identify that Article 33 of the CRC is the only UN human rights treaty to deal with drug use and children. Protection from drugs for children must come with an "appropriate" response by the government. The YouthRISE/IHRA document lays out the text of the article and attempts to parse the meaning of "appropriate." The authors define and delimit the word by making it conform to types of action legally circumscribed by human rights law.

For example, the authors place appropriate within the context of the CRC's article 3, that is a stipulation of what makes the best interests of the child. It then reasons through the ways in which drug policy is often not in the best interests of the child. Or, put differently, that drug policy as currently conducted is often not appropriate to protect the child, or reduce harm.

The document is limited by its length so cannot withstand much criticism. It's a welcome first stab at trying to understand how to use international law, in this case human rights law for children, to fight back against irrational official drug policies, such as the drug war. But the document's authors offer little urgency in their task, a problem constructed by a populist methodology that goes in search of youth issues rather than the zones of conflict where the human rights violations actually occur. Since one of these conflict zones is Mexico, with 31,000 dead in the drug war, news organizations estimate 51,000 orphans, with a large number in Juarez. This is too big a problem to collapse into larger "issues."

And few in the human rights community have yet to define what is appropriate to protect the Mexican drug war orphans from greater harm. Juarez is, after all, the most dangerous city in the world.