This weekend I attended the SSDP SE regional conference at William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. On Sunday, about a dozen of us piled into a pancake house (they're 3 to a block down there) and perhaps we stuck out a bit because an older gentleman, mid 60's and conservative-looking, approached our group. He says something like:
Excuse me. I couldn't help but wonder…I always take interest in groups of people. If you don't mind my asking, what brings you folks together?
Maybe it was our mixed ages or the obvious absence of church clothes. He probably eats there every Sunday afternoon. Anyway, we all pause collectively, glancing at each other knowingly. Finally, Lennice Werth of Virginians Against Drug Violence breaks the silence, exclaiming, "Oh, you're gonna love this!"
Lennice and Michael Krawitz give the nice man a quick crash course in drug policy reform and he quickly expresses his support. Doug McVay presents him with a copy of Drug War Facts and the man returns to his frustrated wife, who clearly wishes he wouldn't talk to so many strangers. What fun.
I wish our politicians knew how easy it is to have a sensible conversation about drug policy.
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People are listeners
When I was at the Mass state house testifying about the financial aid impact of marijuana decriminalization a Park Ranger at the security checkpoint asked me about my schools not prisons pin. I explained to him how only students with drug convictions lost their chance at an education, and the decriminalization bill would help to protect students right to an education. As I gathered my things from the plastic bowl he asked, "how do you lose that argument?" Ever since I have been asking myself that same question.
Sensible Educators
I was particularly struck, but not surprised per se, by his background as a retired high school assistant principal. Although not necessarily as potentially valuable to the movement as the former and current law enforcement professionals in LEAP, education professionals, both teachers and administrators, are often called upon to act out harmful roles in the Drug War, whether it be through devising and implementing biased health education curricula or crafting and enforcing overly harsh or invasive disciplinary measures. When someone who has played that role, the protector of the children by one light and the compliance officer of hegemonic values by another, switches over and rejects the current paradigm, that is an event of symbolic importance for us. I would like to see a seedling group such as Educators for Sensible Drug Policy (http://www.efsdp.org) actually grow to become a real group with both an activist base and some lobbying power. The curriculum development side of education is relatively big business, at least as far as the education sector goes, and subject to market pressures. Most education professionals receive their graduate level education at state schools that, as the Lynne Cheneys and David Horowitzes of the world have shown, are subject to alumni and outside pressure. Of course, some of these policies are handed down from the state level and different, more conventional opportunities to exert pressure exist there. A group of educators would inherently have more credibility in advocating changes within these kinds of institutional structures.
sixties split
sicntired Anyone that's seen that Viet Nam movie knows about the harshness of the split in societal groups that occurred when drugs left the ghetto and came into the main stream of society to stay.The fear and ignorance that the anti-drug side had then still exists today.It's only when these people are involved by a relative being busted or a good friend getting popped that they begin to see there are two sides to the issue and we are all human.I've seen personally,how closed off these people are to hearing any message other than abstinence.They will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.By meeting them one on one or by offering to speak at a lions club meeting(not as scary as it sounds)will we win over those that only repeat what they've been told all their lives.They are often very surprised to find that a drug user can be articulate and affable.
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