| |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Please join us at the "Marijuana Reform: Next Steps for California" conference.
Directions and Transit information
Pre-registration is $30 per person (includes lunch).
You may pay by following this link: http://www.canorml.org/conferencereg.html
Or you may download a registration form and send it in with a check to:
CaNORML
2261 Market St. #278A
San Francisco, CA 94114
If you have questions or special dietary restrictions, please write: [email protected]
Sponsored by:
 |  |
2010 was huge. 2011 will be even bigger...
• We started the Women's Marijuana Movement, whose launch and educational activities -- as well as its actions to support California's Prop. 19 -- put women front and center in the public debate surrounding marijuana. • We expanded the SAFER Campuses Initiative, helping students carry out actions on 80+ college campuses and work to bring about actual policy changes at schools where students have adopted SAFER referendums. • We continued to build momentum and support for marijuana reform in Colorado, setting the stage for an unprecedented campaign to legalize marijuana statewide in 2012. With your help we can do even more in the new year. A generous supporter has offered to match any donations we receive this week, so if you can help SAFER with a tax-deductible end-of-year donation, whatever you give will be DOUBLED! Just click the button below or visit http://www.SAFERchoice.org/donate and lend us twice the support heading into 2011.
The coming year promises to be our busiest and most important since we got started in 2005. And with your continued support we can ramp up all of the above projects and have a huge impact on the direction and success of the marijuana reform movement. Whether it's a one-time donation or a monthly pledge, your contribution will lend tremendously to our work in 2011. Just click on the button above or visit http://www.SAFERchoice.org/donate to make a contribution and have it doubled today. And if you give $25 or more we will send you your choice of SAFER T-shirt or a copy of Marijuana is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink? Thank you again for being a part of the SAFER movement and making our work possible. And from all of us at SAFER, we wish you a safe and happy new year. |
Happy New Year Friends!
This was an amazing year for Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
We helped bring the issue of marijuana legalization into the national spotlight by launching the Just Say Now campaign, a project with our friends at Firedoglake, that provided important tools like a free online phone banking system for activists around the country to call voters in four states with marijuana reforms on the ballot.
|
Our chapter network continues to expand throughout the U.S. and with the addition of an international liaison, SSDP is now rapidly expanding outside of the states and into key places like Mexico City. And for the first time, we hosted our international conference on the west coast and with over 500 people, it was our largest conference to date! Now that 2010 is behind us, we're looking forward to 2011.
This is the last chance to give a tax-deductible gift in 2010, so please consider donating today. Our goals in 2011 are ambitious, and we couldn't do what we do without the generous support of people like you.
Sincerely,
Aaron, Jon, Stacia, Patrick, Garret & Edward
National Staff
P.S. There's still one day left to get your early-bird discount when you register for our 2011 Training Conference & Lobby Day at the University of Maryland, March 17-19, 2011. More details at conference.ssdp.org
Connect with SSDP
Tell Congress to pass the National Criminal Justice Commission Act! |
Dear Friends,
With the current session of Congress winding down, there isn't much time left to reform our broken criminal justice system. So we've got to act now if we hope to achieve prison reform any time soon.
Senate Bill 714 will establish a National Criminal Justice Commission to "undertake a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system ... and make reform recommendations for the President."
I think we can all agree that such an evaluation is sorely needed. The United States has the highest reported incarceration rate in the world, imprisoning a higher percentage of its population than any other country. Our incarceration rate is five times the world's average incarceration rate, with a total of 2,380,000 people locked up.
Please take time today to urge your senators to support Senate Bill 714. For your convenience, a prewritten letter will be e-mailed to your member of Congress when you take action through this page.
Your calls & letters to Congress have gotten us this far! Please keep pushing!
Sincerely,
Aaron Houston
Executive Director, Students for Sensible Drug Policy
P.S.Appreciate our work? Take a moment to support SSDP with a tax deductible end-of-the-year gift today.
Connect with SSDP
For Immediate Release: December 15, 2010
Contact: Nkechi Taifa (202-641-6605) or Tony Newman (646-335-5384)
THURSDAY PRESS TELECONFERENCE: Clinton Commutation Beneficiaries Call on President Obama to Expedite Clemency for Crack Cocaine Prisoners
Recent federal legislation reducing the 100-to-1 cocaine sentencing disparity will not benefitthose in prison
Advocates will fast and pray for justice on December 22, 10-year anniversary of Clinton crack cocaine commutations
WASHINGTON, DC—Advocates for presidential clemency will join together for a press teleconference on Thursday, December 16 to urge President Obama to expedite clemency for people serving excessive terms under the now-reformed federal crack cocaine sentencing laws. Participants will be commemorating the 10-year anniversary of President Clinton’s commutation of Kemba Smith and Dorothy Gaines, two women sent to federal prison for 24 and 19 years, respectively, for playing peripheral roles in their boyfriends’ drug operations. Joining the women on the press teleconference will be members of the Crack the Disparity Coalition, a broad coalition of civil rights, faith-based, drug policy, criminal justice reform advocacy groups, and formerly incarcerated people.
Recent changes under the Fair Sentencing Act, signed in August, reduce the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1 but do not provide relief to thousands of individuals who are already serving time for crack cocaine offenses. Prior to the law’s passage, an individual in possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine (roughly the amount of sugar in a couple of sugar packets) would be sentenced to a federal 5-year mandatory minimum sentence. It took 500 grams of powder cocaine to receive the same 5-year sentence.
The campaign has set up a site (http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/pres_obama-useyourpowertocorrectinjustice/) and a Facebook page, “Holiday Fast and Prayer for Justice,”(http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=173873379301719) where others can commit to fasting and prayer and sign a petition to President Obama on behalf of those behind bars under the old crack cocaine sentencing structure.
WHAT: Press Teleconference to urge President Obama to expedite clemency
WHEN: Thursday, December 16, 1 p.m. ET
CALL IN #: 1-800-311-9402 Passcode: Fairness
WHO:
Kemba Smith Pradia was sentenced as a first time non-violent drug offender to 24.5 years in federal prison even though the prosecutor handling her case said she never handled, used or sold any of the drugs involved. Currently, she is a national public speaker, advocate and founder of the Kemba Smith Foundation.
Dorothy Gaines is a single mother of three who was convicted of minor involvement in her boyfriends’ small-scale crack distribution and served 6 years of a 19 ½ year sentence before she was granted commutation. She currently works with at-risk youth in Mobile, AL.
Hilary O. Shelton is the Director of the NAACP’s Washington Bureau and Senior Vice President for Advocacy and Policy. He played an integral role in the Civil Rights Act of 1991 and other policy measures affecting equality in our society.
Margaret Love was the former U.S. Pardon attorney under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. She now represents people applying for executive clemency and advocates for sentencing and corrections reform.
Moderated by: Nkechi Taifa, the Senior Policy Analyst for the Open Society Foundations and Open Society Policy Center, focusing on issues of criminal justice and racial equality. She also convenes the Crack the Disparity Working Group of the Justice Roundtable, and has worked for over 17 years to eliminate the crack/powder disparity.
Thanks to your support SAFER was able to accomplish quite a bit this past year. Here are just a few of the highlights:
