To date, the (student) drug policy reform movement has been primarily known for its work on cannabis policy reform. This is understandable – the movements to decriminalize and legalize medical cannabis started back in the 1970s. Recent changes in state cannabis law are arguably the most significant drug policy transformations since the United States criminalized cannabis in the 1930s (Heddleston 2011). Like all movements for social justice, the drug policy reform movement has since undergone several iterations, with each transformation adding nuance to the past movements, while expanding the definition of progress for the future. The harm reduction movement of the 1980s began as a public health response to the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C among injection drug users, but eventually became its own self-encompassing philosophy as an alternative approach to drug problems (Erickson et al. 1997). In the mid 1980s and early 1990s, the movement, which was increasingly being discussed in academia, stood behind the argument that “Prohibition doesn’t work!,” and found unity around the issues of racial injustice, mass incarceration, human rights and instability in countries that produce drugs (Trebach and Zeese 1990).  All three branches of the movement actively challenge the stronghold of drug prohibition and  the “drug control industrial complex (Reinarman 2011),” while this latest iteration of anti-prohibitionist philosophy serves to unify the earlier branches.

I’m originally from the East Coast, and went to school in the Midwest, where I started a chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy at Northwestern University and took my first steps into the world of drug policy reform. Given my prior experience in the drug policy reform movement, when I first started my job as Pacific Region Outreach Coordinator of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, I was faced with several important questions, namely, “Where can the student drug policy reform movement continue to go, in states where cannabis is very  much culturally acceptable and de facto legal? What is the value of continuing this movement, and what is the unique role that young people can play in this movement?”

At its heart, the drug policy reform movement is a civil rights movement. Today, we’re able to stand up and say, “I’m proud to be Asian,” or “I’m proud to be gay,” but we’re not able to say, “I’m a drug user, and I love someone who uses drugs, and I think they deserve to have a better life.” To understand where this civil rights movement is going, we must look to the past. The philosophy of anti-prohibition, the most recent iteration of the drug policy reform movement,  has dramatically broadened the reach of the movement, providing both a steady platform and framework from which to carry the future of the drug policy reform movement. SSDP chapters globally, supported by the philosophical underpinnings of the previous iterations of the drug policy reform movement, are engaged in a variety of drug policy reform issues, including but not limited to prison abolition and police brutality, direct service volunteer work with addicts, and passing life-saving Good Samaritan Policies on campus. Resting on the foundations of the drug policy reform movements of the past, SSDP is a unique space that unites all slices of the pie of drug policy reform, in a shared mission to craft a vision for the future, a vision for how a post-prohibition world could and should look.

 Like all civil rights movements, the drug policy reform movement is not just about ending prohibition, it’s about paving the way for freedom – freedom to choose what you put in your body, freedom to alter your consciousness, and freedom to actively craft, accept, and embrace your identity. The re-emergence of psychedelics in mainstream society, known as the Psychedelic Renaissance, marks another turning point in the drug policy reform movement, a new iteration that integrates the movements of the past. One of the markers of the Psychedelic Renaissance, is its fight for cognitive liberty, or the “the right of each individual to think independently and autonomously, to use the full spectrum of his or her mind, and to engage in multiple modes of thought. (Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics, 2016).” Organizations like the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, as well as local organizations ERIE in San Francisco, Psymposia in New York, and the AWARE Project in Los Angeles, are paving the way for this work, using science as a tool to legitimize the use of psychedelic substances in medicine, and in general.

The question that still remains to be answered is, “What role can Students for Sensible Drug Policy play in furthering these ideals?”

To answer this question, I would like to propose that we expand our definition and view of “policy” – yes, policy refers to the written legislation that we pass to create a more sensible world, but policy also refers to the social norms and cultural rules to which we subscribe on a daily basis. It refers to our personal policies of drug use – what we allow into our body, how we engage with these substances, and how harm reduction relates to that. At Students for Sensible Drug Policy, policy reform is an integral aspect of our work because policy has the power to eliminate the label of “criminal,” while at the same time creating new worlds with different frameworks for understanding and alleviating “the drug problem” in our society. 

But the work that we do at Students for Sensible Drug Policy is not solely aimed at policy reform, it is aimed at crafting a political and social context that allows for further drug policy reform.  The role of social movements, particularly youth-led social movements, can be seen as “conducting arguments against prevailing common sense (Billig, 1995, 78),” and Students for Sensible Drug Policy, this network of young, unburdened, idealistic activists and intellectuals from 300+ campuses across the globe, is in the best position to do just that. The work that we do in all areas of drug policy, from entheogenic research and education to direct service work to protesting police brutality, spreads awareness of the fact that we’ve been approaching the issue of drug use all wrong, that the root of addiction is suffering, and that we must stop the harm, and support, don’t punish. The work that we do in our chapter meetings or campus-wide campaigns is about shedding light on the fact that it is problematic that the label of “drug user” puts us on the defensive, and is so damning that it automatically undermines the legitimacy of our movement, and our worth as human beings. At SSDP, the work that we do commemorates, unites, and builds upon the drug policy reform movement as a whole, in order to create a more holistic vision of freedom, and compassion for the future.

Erickson, Patricia G., Diane M. RIley, Yuet W. Cheung, Patrick O’Hare, eds. 1997. Harm Reduction: A New Direction for Drug Policies and Programs. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.

Heddleston, Thomas. 2012. From the Frontlines to the Bottom Line: Medical Marijuana, The War on Drugs, and the Drug Policy Reform Movement. University of California Santa Cruz.

Trebach, Arnold S. and Kevin Zeese, Eds. 1990. Drug Prohibition and the Conscience of Nations. The Drug Policy Foundation: Washington D.C.

Reinarman, Craig. 2011. “Cannabis in Cultural and Legal limbo: Criminalization, LEgalization, and Medicalization in the U.S.” Chapter 9 in Reformulating Drugs: Critical Insights from the Social Sciences. Suzanne Fraser and David Moore, Eds. Cambridge University Press.

Frances first got involved with SSDP in 2011, when she co-founded the Northwestern University chapter as a freshman. Although she had known that the War on Drugs was irrational and ineffective before attending college, it wasn’t until she attended her first Midwest Regional Conference at Roosevelt University that she learned that drug policies were also unjust and inhumane. Since then, harm reduction has been a guiding principle behind all of her professional and personal pursuits, and she strives to educate people about the intersectionalities associated with the War on Drugs.In the drug policy world, Frances has served on SSDP’s Board of Directors, and has worked with cannabis law and industry organizations to research cannabis policy in various states, and write and review applications for cannabis cultivation centers and dispensary licenses. On campus, she was involved with Sexual Health and Assault Peer Educators (SHAPE), Alpha Chi Omega sorority and and has served as the President of the Panhellenic Association. During her senior year, she received the Highest Order of Excellence and Campus Life Awards.