At 2011 NORML Conference, SSDP & the NORML Women's Alliance announce "Sister-to-Sister"

Last week, Aaron Houston and I represented SSDP at the 40th Anniversary NORML Conference in Denver, CO. Aaron spoke on Thursday's panel, "The Feds, Marijuana and You" (watch the video here).

On Friday, I had the pleasure of joining 4 incredibly inspiring women reformers on the "Closing the Cannabis Gender Gap" panel (full video here, I'm the last speaker beginning ~45:00) See the slides from our presentation on our website. It was there that we announced the launch of an exciting new project that SSDP is proud to be working on with the NORML Women's Alliance.

The purpose and goals for "Sister-to-Sister" Cultivating Female Activists Mentoring Project are as follows:

• To connect women in the marijuana movement with each other in order to facilitate a close-knit community of female drug law reform advocates.
• To make women feel welcomed as part of the larger reform movement by connecting those who have been involved for less than 2-3 years with those who have been involved for more than 2-3 years.
• To build strong professional and personal relationships between women of all demographics who wouldn’t have otherwise been introduced to one another.
• To share skills, information, resources, contacts, and other useful knowledge that will help female reformers be more engaged and more effective as they work toward common interests.
• To empower and instill confidence in women who are interested in seeking leadership positions within their respective groups and organizations.
• To help close the gender gap that currently exists within the marijuana law reform community.

To read more about "Sister-to-Sister" and to find applications for the program visit our website and to learn more about the NORML Women's Alliance, visit norml.org/women.

SSDP at the International Students for Liberty Conference 2011

I was invited to speak at this weekend's 2011 International Students for Liberty Conference in Washington D.C. This was my first experience as a speaker at a conference over 500. I found out fairly early on that nearly every state in the U.S. had registered, and that 25 countries were also registered. I met people from Romania, Australia, UK, Nigeria, and others that I am not currently remembering. The level of intellect of those in attendance was nothing short of stunning.

Students for Liberty is not at all what I thought it was; I figured it would be a bunch of Libertarians spouting off about how terrible government and bureaucracy is, and while there were some people that held these beliefs, this conference struck me as very similar to that of an SSDP conference. The political beliefs ranged from unsure independent to ultra libertarian, and everything in between. While many people debated politics for long periods of time, there tended to be one thing in common with everyone: everyone felt as though our liberties were being infringed upon.

Students for Liberty is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, which is what makes it so different from other Libertarian groups. They don't support any specific policies, nor do they support Libertarian groups that are not non-profit. From my perspective, this is what makes SFL so important.

Alexander McCobin and Sloane Frost, two co-founders of Students for Liberty, did nothing but impress me with their level of commitment to the organization they founded. Both were top notch speakers that seem to have mastered the process of organizing and delegating, and in three years successfully turned their organization into the largest student-run, liberty-promoting group in existence.

The Stossel Show was filmed at the conference, where John Stossel made it clear that he had never seen a group of politically minded students similar to SFL in his years in the media. The energy in the crowd was nothing short of electric as students from around the world lined up to ask questions during the taping. Gary Johnson spoke about his perspective of politics which blew everyone away (apparently he vetoed more bills than anyone else in the country when he was in office). While he probably will not be President of the United States anytime soon, he is still running in 2012, which continues to garner more and more media attention.

In a nutshell, and in my opinion, Students for Liberty is the future of politics. There is not another group of such incredibly intelligent students in existence, and there is absolutely no way to stigmatize the organization. SSDP and SFL will continue to foster a collaborative relationship so that we can work together to help end the failed War on Drugs and advance the ideals of Liberty across the world.

Thanks to all those that took the time to get to know me; it was an honor for me to have the opportunity to share my story. I sincerely hope that it encourages more chapters of SSDP to start up, and more people to get involved in their local chapters. Only time can tell what will happen, but if anyone from Students for Liberty has any questions about SSDP or wants to get one started, I'd be happy to help where I can. My co-presenter, Stacia Cosner, is the Associate Director of SSDP and it is her job to help students start chapters. Her e-mail address is stacia@ssdp.org. Check out the slides from our presentation on "Drug Policy Activism" here.