Senator Chafee Speaks at Northeast Regional Conference

On April 13-15, 2007 over one-hundred students from approximately fifteen schools across the Northeast took three days to deepen their understanding of the Drug War and discuss strategies for combating drug prohibition at SSDP’s Northeast Regional Conference, entitled “Confronting the Drug War, Envisioning Alternatives.” Held at Brown University in Providence, RI, the conference featured dozens of speakers including prominent politicians, political activists, student organizers, and social critics.

Lincoln Chafee, former Republican U.S. senator from Rhode Island, opened the conference with a discussion of his experience on the narcotics subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and his time traveling across the coca producing regions of South America. “We’re at the point now where we really need to assess whether or not [interdiction] is working,” Chafee told a crowd of about 150 people. During the Q&A session Chafee spoke out against the aid elimination penalty in the Higher Education Act, stating “to forbid [students] from getting school aid because they have a conviction is backwards.” He also voiced support for medical marijuana and drug court programs in Rhode Island.

Glen Loury, a Brown Professor and prominent social critic, followed Chafee with a lecture on the harrowing effects of drug prohibition and its racist undertones. Conference attendees were outraged to hear that African American males in California are four times more likely to go to prison than to college, and that in Brooklyn alone there are sixty city blocks where the government spends over a million dollars to incarcerate people that claim residency there. Loury concluded his powerful oration by asserting that “we are a nation of jailers, and racist jailers at that.”

The next morning Drug Policy Alliance Executive Director Ethan Nadelmann reminded the crowd that the movement to end the War on Drugs has a long road ahead. Nadelmann begged the audience to relinquish quixotic hopes of a quick success and to stay steadfast in our dedication to the movement. He reminded students that even if they stray from activism they should never forget to support organizations such as SSDP and DPA in whatever ways possible. As Nadelmann put it, “Fuel the movement with energy while young and with money as you grow older.”

Following Nadelmann, students attended their choice of events that included a panel on how the Drug War affects healthcare, a speech by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition’s Peter Christ, and an eye-opening workshop on anti-racist organizing where activists learned how to address their own privilege while working to end racist and oppressive policies. The day allowed attendees to interact with prominent activists while urging them to cultivate stronger beliefs and a renewed commitment to SSDP’s purpose.

On the final day, Daniel Pinchbeck, the award-winning author of Breaking Open the Head, delivered delightfully unconventional wisdom regarding the potentially beneficial uses of psychedelics while depicting the alternative world we could enjoy in a society that abdicated its demonization of mind-altering substances. In this mental context of exploration and self-understanding, students gathered in groups to discuss the ins and outs of running a successful SSDP chapter. After sharing effective strategies and painfully recounting the lessons learned from our mistakes, students set out with the knowledge, tools, and inspiration to build a more effective student movement to end the Drug War.

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