Outstanding Student Activist Award: Katharine Celentano

Earlier this month over 400 people gathered at our 2011 Training Conference and Lobby Day, and to wrap things up on the last day, SSDP recognized the achievements of several extraordinary student and non-student members during the Awards Ceremony and Benefit Concert. In the coming weeks, keep an eye out as we will write one blog post for each award recipient highlighting the hard work that made them stand out from the crowd.

Two students each year receive the "Outstanding Student Activist" award. In our first award profile, it's easy to see why Katharine Celentano (Columbia University) deserves this honor. In fact, I think "outstanding" might even be an understatement...

Katharine Celentano made hundreds of calls to California voters last year urging them to support the passage of Proposition 19 to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. Katharine earned the title of "Professional Phonebanker" using the Just Say Now phonebanking tool, rising to and staying near the top of the leaderboard during the entire campaign. With 551 points earned, only two others made more calls than she did, all while tackling her first semester of rigorous coursework studying Neuroscience and Behavior at CU.

Katharine has been advocating for a Good Samaritan policy on campus at Columbia, currently the only Ivy League school that does not protect students from punishment when calling 911 in alcohol and other drug related medical emergencies. Because of the work she and others have done, the school administration is now closer than ever to adopting this life-saving overdose prevention policy.

She also initiated a coordinated media response to last year's "Operation Ivy League" drug bust involving five Columbia students, shining light on campus drug law enforcement and calling for a change in policing practices.

Last month, she helped draft and issue this press release in response to startling data indicating an increase in low-level marijuana arrests targeting youth and people of color in New York city.

Katharine has been instrumental in building a coalition of on- and off-campus individuals and groups such as CHURON, the Columbia University Harm Reduction Outreach Network, and the Washington Heights CORNER Project, a local syringe exchange program, to coordinate harm reduction efforts with the SSDP chapter across all CU schools at the university as well as within the larger community.

This is not the first time we've told you about her work, and it certainly won't be the last.

Congratulations Katharine!

Join the drug policy reform movement at Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity this Saturday 10.30.10

Are you coming to Washington, DC for The Daily Show's Rally to Restore Sanity or The Colbert Report's March to Keep Fear Alive this Saturday 10/30/10?

SSDP is involved in organizing events before, during, and after the rally to mobilize supporters of marijuana and other drug law reform. With the support of the Drug Policy Alliance, the Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet), and other allies, we can unite as a powerful movement for drug policy sanity in Washington, DC on October 30th. Less than 72 hours before California voters will go to the polls and decide the fate of Proposition 19, a potentially monumental step forward toward ending marijuana prohibition. We must take this incredibly appropriate opportunity to be a voice for sensible drug policy, join us in Washington, DC...

BEFORE: Sign Making/Distribution Party
RSVP on Facebook
For those who will be in town the night before the rally, we'll be at an SSDP satellite home/office welcoming people into town, networking, and preparing materials. We'll have some already made 'Legalize Pot' signs courtesy of DPA, and a some 'Yes on 19' signs courtesy of the Yes on 19. Tax Cannabis 2010 campaign.

DURING: Rally to Restore (Drug Policy) Sanity
RSVP on Facebook
Meet us at the Rally! We'll be the enormous group dressed in suits and holding "Legalize Pot" signs (similar to the event logo) standing at in the center of the National Mall at 4th St.

AFTER: Phonebanking to Restore Sanity
RSVP on Facebook
Immediately following the rally, join us in our DC headquarters office for a phonebanking party to call voters in support of Proposition 19. There will be pizza! If you can, please bring a laptop & your phone.

In a recent piece on Alternet, Yair Tygiel of the Drug Policy Alliance outlines the powerful ways in which our drug policies are lacking sanity:

• As long as parents believe that prohibition -- rather than education and regulation -- keeps their kids safe, our country is not sane.

• As long as over 750,000 people are arrested for marijuana possession in the U.S. every year – most of them Black and Latino men who use and sell marijuana at the same rate as Whites -- our country is not sane.

• As long as foreign-born residents of the U.S. can be deported for a marijuana law violation – no matter how long they have lived in this country – our country is not sane.

• As long as millions of people on parole and probation are thrown back through the revolving prison doors for failing a drug test, our country is not sane.

• As long as the U.S. black market for marijuana fuels rampant violence in Mexico, our country is not sane.

Please visit rally.ssdp.org for details and updates. Hope to see you in DC this Saturday!

SSDP's Phonebanking Parties begin at Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference

Over 60 people gathered in Richmond, VA last weekend at SSDP’s 1st Annual Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference hosted by our chapter at Virginia Commonwealth University. If you weren't able to make it, check out some photos and videos of the conference.

We kicked off the event on Friday with a Phonebanking Pizza Party, where over a dozen students generated around 200 calls to California voters about marijuana legalization using Just Say Now’s Virtual Phonebank!

Heather Ness, a linguistics major at the University of Maryland where she serves as the treasurer for our UMD SSDP chapter, commented about her experience at the party saying: “It was so easy and fun! Once one or two people broke the ice, everyone started calling. Because we’re calling young voters, it’s like having a conversation with a peer.”

Mike Liszewski, SSDP board member and President/Founder of the UDC School of Law SSDP chapter asked the audience during the conference, “Who here wishes they could vote in the California election this November 2nd so they could vote yes on Proposition 19?”

Almost every hand went up.

“This is the closest thing you can do next to voting that will directly impact the outcome of this groundbreaking initiative that will tax and regulate the responsible adult use of marijuana.”

Visit ssdp.org/pizzaparty to host your own phonebanking party. You can start making calls on your own anytime at JustSayNow.com