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TABLE OF CONTENTS

03SCHEDULE AT

A GLANCE

05 DETAILED

CONFERENCE

AGENDA 27 JOB FAIR

28 SPONSORS

OUTREACH

RECRUITMENT

& DIVERSITY 15 SPEAKER

BIOS

25 LOCAL

INFORMATION

SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE

3

FRIDAY: 09.26.2014

SATURDAY: 09.27.2014

5:00pm – 8:00pm Registration

5:00pm – 8:00pm Welcome reception

and regional networking with light hors

d’oeuvres and cash bar.

8:00pm – 10:00pm Congress I (students

only)

8:00pm – 10:00pm Alumni dinner spon-

sored by Berkeley Patients Group

Piola (1550 Wilson Blvd)

9:00am – 6:00pm Registration, Exhibi-

tor Hall, Free Meeting Space, and Job

Fair sponsored by NCIA

9:00am – 9:30am Breakfast

9:00am – 9:45am Breakfast discussion

with Eric Sterling

9:45am – 10:15am Opening keynote

speaker: Rob Kampia

10:30am – 11:45am Breakout sessions

• Movement + Industry: Maintaining

values in a post-prohibition world

• We’re Not Done Yet! The importance

of activism in the age of legalization

• How to be a better advocate: Commu-

nity Voice & Drug Policy

• From Grassroots to the UN, ending

the War on Drugs globally

12:00pm – 1:15pm Breakout sessions

• Media Relations 101 with the Experts

• Calling for Help Shouldn’t be a

Crime: Successful 911 Good Samaritan

Policy Strategies

• America’s Longest War: Fighting

drug prohibition then and now

1:30pm – 2:45pm Lunch (Congress II)

3:00pm – 4:15pm Breakout sessions

• Alumni in the Cannabis Industry I:

Working in the industry while further-

ing drug policy reform

9:00am – 6:00pm Registration, Exhibi-

tor Hall, Free Meeting Space, and Job

Fair sponsored by NCIA

9:00am – 9:30am Breakfast

9:00am – 9:45am Breakfast discussion

with Betty Aldworth

9:45am – 10:15am Opening keynote

speakers: Alyson Martin & Nushin Rashidian

10:30am – 11:45am Breakout sessions

• Live Music & Drugs: The Conversation

We Need to Be Having

• Unique Perspectives: The Hidden Con-

sequences of the War on Drugs

• From Students to Activists: Organiz-

ing to change policy

• LSSDP Presents Drug Policy Lawyer-

ing: Opportunities and Conflicts in an

Evolving Landscape

8:30am - 9:00am Lobby day briefing

and breakfast

9:30am-4:30pm Individual lobby

day meetings with elected officials on

Capitol Hill

SUNDAY: 09.28.2014

MONDAY: 09.29.2014

• Building a Legally Sustainable Can-

nabis Market

• Industrial Hemp: Advocacy and

legislation

• The Right on Drugs: Working with

new & old allies

4:30pm – 5:45pm Breakout sessions

• Alumni in the Cannabis Industry II:

Building an industry career out of your

reform work.

• Putting Down the Handcuffs: Steps

Towards Removing Criminal Penalties

for Drug Use & Possession in the U.S.

• Protecting Medical Marijuana Pa-

tients on Campus: A strategy for policy

change

6:00pm – 6:30pm Closing keynote

speaker: Troy Dayton

6:30pm – 8:30pm Outreach Recruitment

and Diversity Meet Up and Dinner

Melee Bistro

8:30pm – 9:30pm Awards ceremony

9:30pm – 1:00am Live music, dance party,

photo booth, cash bar

12:00pm – 1:15pm Breakout sessions

• When Diplomacy Fails: How to Fight

Back Against a Difficult Administration

• Online Organizing: Tools, tips, and

best practices

• Privilege and the War on Drugs

1:30pm – 2:45pm Lunch (History of

SSDP Plenary)

3:00pm – 4:15pm Breakout sessions

• Film the Police: Using Radical Tech-

nology to Watch the Watchers

• Women, Families, and the War on

Drugs

• What About the Children?: Families

and the War on Drugs

• How Harm Reduction is Helping to

End Homelessness

• Getting the Word Out: Tips for tak-

ing over campus media

4:30pm – 5:45pm Breakout sessions

• Lobby Day Training (Mandatory for

lobby day participants)

• Developing Sensible Careers:

Insights into SSDP’s career services

program and alumni association

6:00pm – 6:30pm Closing keynote

speaker: Neill Franklin

6:30pm – 7:30pm Closing Ceremonies

4

5

DETAILED CONFERENCE AGENDA

6

FRIDAY: 09.26.2014 5:00P - 8:00P

Registration

--

Promenade 2nd Floor Lobby

5:00P - 8:00P

Welcome Reception

--

Rosslyn Ballroom

Meet and greet reception for all confer-

ence attendees.

8:00P - 10:00P

SSDP Student Congress - Part I

--

Rosslyn Ballroom

During SSDP Congress: Part I, attendees

will be introduced to the student candi-

dates running to serve on SSDP’s Board

of Directors. The candidates running for

Student Director positions on the Board

will deliver brief speeches, followed by

a question and answer session in which

students, SSDP staff, and current board

members will ask the candidates ques-

tions regarding their qualifications to

serve on the Board. It is strongly en-

couraged that all students attend this

Congress session and get to know the

candidates, as students in active SSDP

chapters will be voting on their top

choices for Board members the follow-

ing day.

8:00P - 10:00P

Alumni Dinner

Sponsored by Berkeley Patients Group

Piola (restaurant) 1550 WIlson Blvd,

Arlington, VA

SSDP Alumni conference attendees are

invited to join us in celebrating SSDP’s 16

years of outstanding alumni. This year’s

dinner is sponsored by Berkeley Pa-

tients Group and will take place at Piola

Restaurant in downtown Arlington, VA at

8pm. You won’t want to miss this warm,

intergenerational gathering of friends!

SATURDAY: 09.27.2014

9:00A - 9:30A

Breakfast

--

Rosslyn Ballroom

9:00A - 9:45A

Breakfast with Eric Sterling

Eric Sterling

Rosslyn Ballroom

Join legendary drug policy reformer

Eric Sterling in the ballroom for break-

fast, where he will answer questions and

discuss topics of particular interest to

attendees -- and Eric -- in an informal,

broad-ranging conversation.

9:45A - 10:15A

Opening Keynote: The Future of

Marijuana Legalization

Rob Kampia

Rosslyn Ballroom

Rob Kampia will provide a window to

the future of Marijuana Policy Project’s

marijuana campaigns over the next four

years. Rob will discuss both the easier-

to-predict ballot initiatives and the more

tenuous state legislative efforts poised

to pass marijuana-related legislation

through 2017. Also, Rob will discuss when

he expects Congress will change federal

law -- and why.

10:30A - 11:45A

Movement & Industry: Maintaining re-

form values in a post-prohibition world

Betty Aldworth, Troy Dayton, Steve Fox,

Kris Krane, Kris Lotlikar

Shenandoah Suite

The “next great American industry”

started modestly enough, with infused

brownies delivered, free of charge, to

people dying from HIV/AIDS and cancer

in San Francisco in the 1980’s. Thirty

years later, the legal marijuana industry --

born from the movement built in a home

kitchen -- boasts thousands of busi-

nesses, tens of thousands of employees,

millions of patients and consumers, and

an annual market estimated to reach $2.5

billion in 2014. This panel will explore the

intersections and contradictions of the

marijuana policy reform movement and

the legal marijuana industry. How does

the marijuana industry contribute to

movement goals, and how might it hold

us back? Does the industry really fulfill

the promise of a post-prohibition world?

What can advocates and activists bring

to the marijuana industry to ensure it

upholds goals of reform? And how does

the movement protect itself from having

it’s goals usurped by industry?

We’re Not Done Yet! The importance of

activism in the age of legalization

Sabrina Fendrick, Kandice Hawes, Amber

Langston

Dogwood

As progress in the marijuana law reform

movement continues to grow, there is a

concern that interest and involvement

in reform work will start to diminish, but

we’re not done yet - we’re just getting

started. This panel will compare the

scope and context of reform work in

different parts of the US, discuss how ad-

vocacy is changing with the evolution of

progressive marijuana laws, and exam-

ine what we can do to support activists

working in states with overly restrictive,

punitive marijuana policies.

How to be a better advocate: Commu-

nity Voice and Drug Policy

Irina Alexander, Cyndee Clay, Nick

Rosenberg, Kellen Russionello, Jasmine

Tyler

7

Club

This session will discuss the importance

of community voice to drug policy

reform efforts. An issue facing many

social justice movements is the failure

to properly involve the communities af-

fected by the injustices while we search

for solutions. The goal is to provide

students with a better understanding of

how to appropriately and meaningfully

include communities affected by unjust

drug policies in the process of social

change. Models and real world examples

will outline the success of this practice.

A discussion of privilege, community

empowerment, diversity, and oppression

will set students on their path to greater

community impact.

From Grassroots to the UN, ending the

War on Drugs globally

Michael Krawitz, Ciaran Maher, Christian

Sederberg, Olivia Teehan

Georgetown

As much as domestic drug policy reform

can make tremendous differences in

individual countries, justice will not be

achieved until the global drug war is re-

placed with sensible policy. This session

is a look at the problems with, and ways

to challenge, the war on drugs globally.

Case studies from around the world, the

position of the United Nations Commis-

sion on Narcotic Drugs, and the opportu-

nities presented by the 2016 United Na-

tions General Assembly Special Session

will be discussed.

12:00P - 1:15P

Media Relations 101

Betty Aldworth, Tony Newman, Mike

Riggs, Mason Tvert

Shenandoah Suite

Messaging against the War on Drugs

is nuanced, complicated, and full of

potential pitfalls, but with a basic media

strategy, solid knowledge about the

ideas and arguments, and lots of prac-

tice, you can capture media attention on

campus and in your communities to help

push the envelope on any aspect of drug

policy reform. Hear from seasoned ex-

perts about crafting media strategies to

enhance your efforts, capturing earned

media, effective storytelling, rocking an

interview, and, of course, those moments

each of our panelists wish weren’t on

film.

Calling for Help Shouldn’t be a Crime:

Successful 911 Good Samaritan policy

strategies

Romain Bonilla, Rose Bono, Scott Cecil,

Jeremy Sharp

Dogwood

Overdose deaths are now the leading

cause of accidental deaths in the United

States. Twenty-one states and the Dis-

trict of Columbia have passed 911 Good

Samaritan, Medical Amnesty and/or Nal-

oxone Access laws in the past decade.

Recently, SSDP chapters have been

instrumental in helping legislators intro-

duce and ultimately enact these laws at

the state level and in pursuing similar

campus-level policy changes. This panel

will feature SSDP students who will share

their experiences having been an integral

part of these campaigns, from introduc-

ing legislation to legislators, building

political coalitions, lobbying in favor of

proposed legislation and pursuing public

awareness campaigns after implementa-

tion of these laws.

America’s Longest War: Fighting Drug

Prohibition Then and Now

Meredith Bragg, Lauren Galik, Ed

Krayewski, Katherine Mangu-Ward

Club

When the War on Drugs started in the

1970’s many groups who opposed the

senseless policy, like Reason, had few

weapons outside of print journalism with

which to offer criticism. However, rapid

advancements in technology generated

cutting edge mediums of communication

to reach new audiences and transform

public opinion. In this session, we’ll learn

how Reason and other advocacy groups

continue to fight against America’s

Longest War in print and online, through

video journalism, investigative reporting,

and public policy research.

1:30P - 2:45P

Lunch + SSDP Student Congress - Part II

--

Rosslyn Ballroom

During SSDP Congress: Part II, students

in active chapters will vote on their top

five choices to elect new Student Direc-

tors that will serve a two-year term on

SSDP’s Board of Directors. You must be

present at this Congress session in order

to vote (there will be an online voting

system, but only for active chapters who

cannot attend the conference). Addition-

ally, the Organizational Structure Evalua-

tion Committee (OSEC) of the Board will

be presenting the new proposed SSDP

bylaws, to be voted on by the student

body during this session. Active chapters

will also have the opportunity to propose

nonbinding resolutions to influence the

direction of the organization, if adopted

by the student body. Non-student at-

tendees are invited to quietly observe

Congress or pick up a box lunch and

find a place to eat nearby.

3:00P - 4:15P

Alumni in the Cannabis Industry I:

Working in the industry while further-

ing drug policy reform

Michael Blunk, Sam Chapman, Trevor

Hosterman, Kat Humphries, Sam Tracy

Shenandoah Suite

Want to join the new and expanding

legal marijuana industry? Learn from

SSDP alumni that work full-time manag-

ing award winning cultivation facilities,

changing medical and adult-use marijua-

na laws, and helping to build the next big

cannabis business! Speakers will discuss

the paths they took to get to where they

are today and how to leverage the SSDP

network to make valuable job connec-

tions. Throughout the discussion, alumni

will talk about how their day-to-day work

8

helps to create a responsible industry

that furthers their own personal goals in

drug policy reform.

Building a Legally Sustainable Cannabis

Market

Brandon Paroly, Josh Kappel, Khusihid

Khoja, Andrew Livingston, Mizti Vaughn

Dogwood

After college, many of us will start

careers in the burgeoning cannabis

industry, including running business

that provide cannabis and other ancil-

lary goods and services, and providing

legal services to those businesses. Here,

a member of Law Students for Sensible

Drug Policy will question four attorneys

about their roles in and advice for the

cannabis industry. What banking and

other federal regulatory enforcement is-

sues does the cannabis industry specially

face? What entity formation and busi-

ness licensing does the cannabis industry

specially face? What are current state

and federal lobbying issues, and what

are the next steps? What special corpo-

rate law and other considerations affect

attorneys advising cannabis business

clients? What advice do students need

for careers in the cannabis industry and

in business law?

Industrial Hemp Advocacy & Legislation

Ben Droz

Club

Industrial Hemp, the non-psychoactive

varieties of cannabis, has been grown

throughout human history, and American

history. Sales for hemp products in the

U.S. exceeded $580 million in 2012, for

high nutrition food products, building

materials, body care, and much more.

The past year has been monumental

for the hemp movement, since pass-

ing of Section 7606 of the Farm Bill, an

amendment that defines industrial hemp

and allows for pilot programs. Hear the

latest news and learn how to get involved

with Ben Droz, legislative liaison for Vote

Hemp.

The Right on Drugs: Working With New

& Old Allies

Lauren Galik, Ann Lee, Tim Lynch, Kat

Murti, Vikrant Reddy

Georgetown

Ending the War on Drugs is no longer ex-

clusively the purview of the left. As more

and more libertarians and conservatives

are brought into the drug policy reform

fold, the scope of proposed policy solu-

tions continues to widen. What initiatives

do activists and policy wonks from the

right support, where do the left and right

differ on drug policy, and how can these

newfound allies better collaborate on

this policy issue?

4:30P - 5:45P

Alumni in the Cannabis Industry II:

Building an industry career out of your

reform work

John Decker, Evan Eisenberg, Brian Gil-

bert, Andrew Livingston, Lauren Men-

delsohn, Evan Nison

Shenandoah Suite

Want to build a career in the new legal

marijuana industry? Learn from SSDP

alumni that work full-time creating can-

nabis edibles, changing medical and

adult-use marijuana laws, and represent-

ing businesses in statehouses and the

national’s capital! Speakers will discuss

the lessons they learned and how to

use SSDP connections to find jobs in

this exciting new field. Throughout the

discussion, panelists will talk about the

different ways they utilize skills gained

from SSDP and their drug policy reform

work towards a career in the expanding

cannabis economy.

Putting Down the Handcuffs: Steps To-

wards Removing Criminal Penalties for

Drug Use and Possession in the United

States

Kellen Russionello, Jeronimo Saldaña

Dogwood

Current U.S. drug policies have not only

failed to curb drug use but have also had

a devastating impact on families and

communities around the country. The

purpose of this presentation is to illus-

trate the tragic consequences of crimi-

nalizing drug use, and to highlight the

myriad benefits that eliminating criminal

penalties for minor possession and use

can offer U.S. communities. The presen-

tation will demonstrate that decriminal-

ization, when coupled with a substantial

expansion of effective health, social

support and drug treatment services,

can help minimize the health harms of

drug misuse, such as overdose, disease

and addiction, while substantially reduc-

ing the number of people swept into the

criminal justice system.

Protecting Medical Marijuana Patients

on Campus: A strategy for policy

change

Thalia Perez, Nick Rosenberg, Eric Ster-

ling, Tyler Vile

Club

In states where medical marijuana is

legal, universities have yet to provide

any protection or reasonable accommo-

dation for students that are legitimate

patients. Universities are currently con-

strained by a section of the Higher Edu-

cation Act that, if violated, could result

in the loss of substantial federal funding.

This session will provide a strategy for

implementing a reasonable accommo-

dation policy that will protect medical

marijuana patients from harsh university

sanctions in states with medical mari-

juana programs. The strategy intends

to consider the concerns of campus

administrations, but argues that in failing

to provide a reasonable accommodation

for patients, universities are discriminat-

ing based on ability.

6:00P - 6:30P

KEYNOTE: Please Finish Off Marijuana

Prohibition So We Can Focus On Larger

Injustices

Troy Dayton

Rosslyn Ballroom

SSDP co-founder Troy Dayton will

explore what it’s like to have an unpopu-

lar political opinion that changes to a

9

popular one. Most current SSDP student

members haven’t been advocates in a

time when cannabis policy reform was

unpopular, but know well how challeng-

ing it can be to advocate for other drug

policy reform issues. Cannabis policy can

be a beacon of hope for what might be

possible for other issues, so Troy will talk

about the inner life of the activist along

the various stages of acceptance of un-

popular views.

6:30P - 8:30P

Outreach Rectruitment and Diversity

(ORD) Dinner Meet-Up

--

Mele Bistro

Interested in broadening perspectives

in SSDP and the drug policy reform

movement? Join members of SSDP’s

Outreach, Recruitment & Diversity (ORD)

Committee at nearby restaurant Mele

Bistro (1723 Wilson Blvd., Arlington) for

an open conversation about outreach

to underrepresented stakeholders and

ORD’s role in facilitating diversity. Meet

us in the hotel lobby at 6:30 (after the

keynote) to walk or cab over together—

or join us on your own. All are welcome.

8:30P - 1:00A

Reception (Awards, Dance Party)

--

Rosslyn Ballroom

Join us in the ballroom for the SSDP

Awards Ceremony from 8:30-9:30,

where we’ll recognize members of the

SSDP network for their outstanding

work. Then, sing along and dance to

an evening of celebrating with a dance

party and live music. The Wets, a band

comprised of SSDP alumni, will perform

high energy covers of songs from the

60’s through today. Take a photo in the

photo booth to commemorate this once-

in-a-lifetime experience! A cash bar will

be available for those 21 and older.

SUNDAY: 09.28.2014

9:00A - 9:30A

Breakfast

--

Rosslyn Ballroom

9:00A - 9:45A

Breakfast with Betty Aldworth

Betty Aldworth

Rosslyn Ballroom

Join SSDP executive director Betty

Aldworth in the ballroom for breakfast,

where she will answer questions and

discuss topics of particular interest to

attendees in an informal, broad-ranging

conversation.

9:45A - 10:15A

Keynote: Covering Cannabis

Alyson Martin, Nushin Rashidian

Rosslyn Ballroom

Nushin Rashidian and Alyson Martin,

co-authors of A New Leaf: The End of

Cannabis Prohibition (The New Press,

2014), will present a conversation called

“Covering Cannabis.” They have a

comprehensive and vivid understand-

ing of cannabis in the United States

after traveling 30,000 miles by car, zig

zagging across the country to report

for their book. They will discuss how the

media landscape has changed in the past

five years and will share their experience

as journalists who have written about

cannabis and drug policy for The New

York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation,

and Esquire, among other outlets. www.

anewleafbook.com

10:30A - 11:45A

Live Music and Drugs: The Conversation

We Need to Be Having

Brian Gilbert, Brooke Gilbert, Dede Gold-

smith, Mikayla Hellwich, Stefanie Jones

Shenandoah Suite

Whether it’s hip-hop, jam bands, EDM

or any other genre, we know that some

people choose to use drugs at live music

events. And yet it’s often incredibly diffi-

cult to share the information that people

need to stay safe. What drug laws and

policies are behind this attitude and what

can be done to change them? What

groups are already working in the field

at events and how can you get involved?

And what do you need to know to make

safer, healthier choices for yourself and

your friends when it comes to drug use

at live music events?

Unique Perspectives: The Hidden Con-

sequences of the War on Drugs

Anthony Belotti, Kat Murti, Jeronimno

Saldaña, Kylee Sunderlin, Eapen Thampy

Dogwood

Much of the fallout from the drug war

-- increased drug usage and violence,

decreased civil liberties -- has been well

documented, but not every negative side

effect of the War on Drugs has been giv-

en the attention it is properly due. This

panel will cover the intersection between

the War on Drugs and animal abuse,

asset forfeiture, immigration, parenting

rights, and more.

From Students to Activists: SSDP chap-

ter building tips from the experts

jake Agliata, Scott Cecil, Drew Stromberg

Club

SSDP’s Outreach Team will talk with stu-

dents about how to effectively organize

their chapters in order to enact policy

change on the campus, state, and nation-

al levels. Topics to be covered include:

recruiting & retaining chapter members,

engaging people on campus, relation-

ship and coalition building, resources

available to students, and where to start

when you want to enact policy change.

LSSDP Presents Drug Policy Lawyering:

Opportunities and conflicts in an evolv-

ing landscape

Jess Cochrane, Alex Kriet, Reid Murdoch,

Kellen Russionello, Jesse Stout, Rachelle

Yeung

Georgetown

Legal practitioners now have more op-

portunities than ever to push back on

prohibition. Criminal, health, family, cor-

porate/tax, housing and civil rights are

just a few of the legal fields that intersect

with drug policy. From nonprofit organiz-

ing and impact litigation to direct client

service, drug policy lawyering today has

many faces. Hear preeminent lawyers

from diverse backgrounds describe how

their respective practices relate to drug

policy reform. This panel is targeted to

current and prospective attorneys, law

students, and other legal professionals,

though all are welcome.

12:00P - 1:15P

When Diplomacy Fails: How to Fight

Back Against a Difficult Administration

Jake Agliata, Stacia Cosner, Catherine

Sevcenko, Sam Tracy

Shenandoah Suite

We’ve all been there: you’ve spent

months trying to build a positive relation-

ship with your campus administration,

but for one reason or another, they are

continuing to create nonsensical road-

blocks for your chapter. This session will

focus on what you can do when your

school’s administration is standing in

the way of your SSDP chapter’s forma-

tion, operation, and/or efforts to change

policy. Several SSDP students and alumni

who have experience dealing with these

issues will lead a discussion about how

chapters can overcome the challenges

posed by a difficult administration. We’ll

also hear from a representative from

FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights

in Education) about campus rights and

freedom of speech.

Online Organizing: tools, tips, and best

practices

Alec Foster, Kat Murti, Jon Perri, Drew

Stromberg

Dogwood

Attendees will learn about the key

components of a successful online

campaign and the tools that are avail-

able for scrappy activists and organiza-

tions. You’ll learn how to turn compelling

stories (the backbone of any campaign)

into online actions that not only increase

engagement and bring new supporters,

but have real impact.

Privilege and the War On Drugs

Stephanie Izquieta, Brooke Gilbert,

Frances Fu, James Kowalsky, Rex Tai,

Rachelle Yeung

Club

Prohibition was originally meant to pro-

mote public safety, health and wellness;

yet the War on Drugs has criminalized

medical cannabis patients and dispro-

portionately impacted poor people of

color. Our drug policy reform move-

ment began in order to combat these

injustices; however, in doing so, we have

missed the ways in which drug policy

has historically benefited people with

race, socioeconomic, and able-bodied

privilege. People with more privilege are

more likely to serve as advocates and

not only avoid the harms of, but experi-

ence the benefits of, drugs and drug

policy. As a movement that prides itself

on diversity, social justice, and inclusion,

it will become increasingly important for

young SSDP activists to take steps to

ensure that their privileged voices being

used for good and that those with less

privilege are empowered, not erased by,

our movement.

1:30P - 2:45P

Lunch & History of SSDP plenary

Stacia Cosner, Dan Goldman, Shae

Gunther, Shawn Heller, Kris Krane, Kris

Lotlikar, Shaleen Title

Rosslyn Ballroom

Students for Sensible Drug Policy is a

16 year old organization with a long his-

tory of building the movement to end

the drug war. This panel will go back

to the early days of SSDP to examine

the circumstances that necessitated its

founding and show how it evolved to its

current form. Told through the stories of

how each panelist became involved in

the organization, this session will also be

recorded and broadcast as an episode of

the Marijuana Today podcast.

3:00P - 4:15P

Film the Police: Using Radical Technol-

ogy to Watch the Watchers

Neill Franklin, Steve Silverman

Shenandoah Suite

Drug policy reformers have long

sounded the alarm about the dangers of

police militarization. Ferguson pushed

the problem to the forefront of public

consciousness. The first half of this panel

examines how the drug war and post-9/11

security state advanced a warrior ethic

that views regular people as “the enemy.”

The second half explores what we can

do about it. Everyone with a smartphone

can expose police abuse that would have

previously gone unseen. Put your per-

sonal technology to the test to discover

the best practices for capturing and se-

curing video during high-intensity police

encounters.

Women, Families, and the War on Drugs

Betty Aldworth, Jess Cochrane, Frances

Fu, Sahra Kant, Kylee Sunderlin

Dogwood

One of the more overlooked conse-

quences of drug policies are the negative

impact they have on women and families.

Spanning child endangerment laws, opi-

ate overdose and Naloxone access, child

protection services, and incarcerated

mothers, there are a myriad of reasons

the War on Drugs has failed to protect

the rights and safety of women and their

families around the world. In this panel,

several women will share their experi-

ences and work they are doing to end

discrimination and protect women and

families in drug policy, with a discussion

about how students can bring awareness

to these issues.

Getting the Word Out: Tips for taking

over campus media

Jake Agliata, Lauren Mendelsohn, Jur-

riaan van den Hurk, Tyler Williams

Club

Whether it is radio, newspaper, TV, or

blogging, being involved with campus

10

11

media is a great way to get the word out

about your SSDP chapter and spread

news about drug policy around campus.

This panel will feature several current

and former chapter leaders who have

had success incorporating campus media

with their chapter’s activities. They will

share their experiences and advise other

students about how they can best utilize

campus media to the benefit of their

chapters.

How Harm Reduction is Helping to End

Homelessness

Irina Alexander, James Kowalsky, Mark

Schumann, Adam Schneider

Georgetown

Harm reduction is being used around our

country to engage, support, and house

the most vulnerable of people experi-

encing homelessness. The Housing First

Model (HFM) was developed to address

chronic homelessness and is a harm re-

duction approach to providing housing,

removing traditional barriers to housing

like active substance use, lack of income,

or criminal background. In addition to

being connected with permanent hous-

ing, clients are linked with supportive

services delivered from a harm reduction

approach. Beyond being a more compas-

sionate approach, these programs have

generated significant cost savings. Learn

about the role of harm reduction in the

fight to end homelessness.

4:30P - 5:45P

Lobby Day Training

Betty Aldworth, Mike Liszewski, Jasmine

Tyler

Shenandoah Suite

Lobby Day Training will provide basic

lobbying skills training including how to

run a meeting, how to build relationships

and create allies, and why it matters.

We’ll also discuss the specific bills we are

lobbying on, the Smarter Sentencing Act

and the Respect State Marijuana Laws

Act. This session will provide valuable

information for all attendees, and is

required for all students participating in

Lobby Day.

Developing Sensible Careers: Insights

into SSDP’s Career Services Program &

Alumni Association

Stacia Cosner, Dylan Schwartz, Victor

Pinho

Dogwood

This session will introduce alumni and

students to two of SSDP’s new pro-

grams: the Alumni Association and

Career Services. Together, these initia-

tives will improve career opportunities

and post-graduation activities, providing

alumni avenues to meaningfully continue

as advocates. Bringing together SSDP’s

mission of social justice with the socially

conscious cannabis industry has already

proven to be a success, and SSDP’s

career services program will increase

student involvement -- and sensible

reform ethics -- in the cannabis industry

and nonprofit sector through a cultivated

internship program and SSDP’s new job

board. And the coming Alumni Asso-

ciation will carry the SSDP experience

over to member’s post-graduation lives,

offering the same kind of networking and

advocacy student member value while

providing multiple paths to serve as

mentors and advisors.

6:00P - 6:30P

KEYNOTE: A Pathway to Ending Prohi-

bition

Neill Franklin

Rosslyn Ballroom

Across the globe, leaders are acknowl-

edging that prohibition has failed and

arguments in favor of alternatives -- from

decriminalization to regulation -- are

gaining traction at a faster pace than

many drug policy reformers imagined.

Using the framework of the recent Global

Commission on Drug Policy Report,

Taking Control: Pathways to Drug Poli-

cies that Work, Major Neill Franklin will

explore the nuances of sensible post-

prohibition policies, how we get there,

and the many important contributions

SSDPers can continue to make.

6:30P - 7:00P

Closing Ceremonies

Rosslyn Ballroom

Video messages from Ethan Nadelmann,

Executive Director of the Drug Policy Al-

liance and Rick Doblin, Executive Direc-

tor of the Multidisciplinary Association

for Psychedelic Studies will be screened.

Then, we’ll wrap up the conference with

brief remarks from the SSDP staff, select

stories from the conference, and a very

special surprise.

MONDAY: 09.29.2014

8:30A - 9:00A

Lobby Day Briefing + Breakfast

--

Rosslyn Ballroom

9:00A - 4:30P

Individual Lobby Day Meetings

With elected officials on Capitol Hill.

15

SPEAKER BIOS

Jake Agliata is SSDP’s Outreach Coor-

dinator for the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic,

Mountain, Pacific, and International

regions. He first got involved with drug

policy in 2011 when he co-founded the

SSDP chapter at Dickinson College,

eventually serving as president from 2012

to 2014. In his time at Dickinson, Jake led

several initiatives to fight back against

the administration’s harsh stance on

drug use on campus. He and his chapter

effectively organized the student body

through campus media to call out the

administration’s lack of transparency and

demand change to the school’s commu-

nity standards.

Betty Aldworth joined SSDP in February

2014 as Executive Director. Since 2009,

Betty has specialized in community

outreach, public relations, advocacy, and

policy reform as a consultant to can-

nabis-related businesses and nonprofit

organizations. Prior to her work in drug

policy and medical cannabis, she was a

volunteer leadership professional with

some of Denver’s most well-respected

nonprofit organizations. Betty served as

advocacy director for Colorado’s 2012

Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like

Alcohol--the collaborative committee

responsible for legalizing, taxing and

regulating marijuana for adults in Colora-

do--and was the Deputy Director of the

National Cannabis Industry Association in

2013, the organization’s breakthrough year.

Irina Alexander works as an Outreach

Counselor for At The Crossroads, an

organization in San Francisco that helps

unstably housed youth live happy and

healthy lives. Her roots in social justice

grew out of drug policy reform. When

she lived in DC, she served as the SSDP

National Board Chair from 2010-2012,

worked for the Criminal Justice Policy

Foundation, and volunteered as a team

leader for HIPS (Helping Individual Pros-

titutes Survive). She’s passionate about

all types of harm reduction, playing a role

in passing DC’s Good Samaritan Law while

also working with MAPS to support people

having difficult psychedelic experiences.

Anthony Bellotti is the founder of the

White Coat Waste Movement - a new

campaign to expose and eliminate the

waste, fraud, and abuse in the gov-

ernment’s $12 billion annual forced

taxpayer-funded animal experimenta-

tion budget. Bellotti has been honored

by Campaigns & Elections Magazine as

a Republican “Rising Star of Politics.”

He served as Executive Director of the

American Association of Political Con-

sultants and as Governor Schwarzeneg-

ger’s Senior Research Analyst, where he

managed opposition research, candidate

inoculation, and rapid-response research.

He’s also worked in a laboratory witness-

ing the harsh reality of modern animal

experimentation.

Michael Blunk handles much of the

business development for the ArcView

Group, the cannabis industry’s premier

hub for investment, data, and progress.

He oversees the process for companies

applying for funding and hoping to get

in front of their network of over 300 ac-

credited investors. His involvement with

SSDP started it all, where he founded a

chapter at the University of Houston in

2008, and was later elected to the Board

of Directors for national SSDP. During his

second term, he was chosen to serve as

Chair of the Board, and led the executive

search committee for a new executive

director.

Romain Bonilla is a French activist

studying Communications at Portland

State University. Before moving to the

United States in 2008, Romain lived in

France, the Netherlands, and Morocco.

In 2009, he founded SSDP at St Cloud

State University. Since 2011, Romain

has served as the founding director of

Portland State SSDP, focusing on harm

reduction, drug education, and sensible

policy reform. More recently, he has

worked to promote student interests

online through Student Net Alliance, a

network of students fighting for a free

and open Web.

Rose Bono works as a research assistant

in the Department of Healthcare Policy &

Research at Virginia Commonwealth Uni-

versity, where she is pursuing a Master’s

in Public Health. She held office in VCU’s

SSDP chapter in each of her under-

graduate years, most recently conclud-

ing a 2-year term as co-president. Last

legislative session, Rose convinced her

Virginia legislative delegate to introduce

a statewide medical amnesty bill, which

gained bipartisan support. It is being con-

sidered in the upcoming Virginia Legisla-

tive session.

Meredith Bragg is a video journalist and

managing editor at Reason TV. Prior to

joining Reason he worked at C-SPAN,

washingtonpost.com, and ABC News. His

work has been seen on FOX, CNN, NBC,

ABC, PBS, Comedy Central, and numer-

ous other television outlets. He’s won a

documentary award from George Lucas,

produced a cat video that was projected

on the side of a bridge in St. Petersburg,

Russia, and recently screened a short

film at the Cannes Film Festival.

Scott Cecil currently serves as the Out-

reach Coordinator for SSDP’s Heartland,

Midwest, Southeast and Southwest

regions. He first became involved with

SSDP when he co-founded the first

SSDP chapter in the State of Arizona in

2011. There are now six thriving SSDP

chapters in Arizona and he was involved

with helping to form each one. Scott was

elected to the SSDP Board of Directors

in 2013 where he served as the Chair of

the Advisory Council Committee before

stepping down to join the SSDP staff in

the summer of 2014.

Sam Chapman is one of the two co-

authors of House Bill 3460 that legalized

and regulated medical marijuana dis-

pensaries in the 2013 legislative session.

Since then, Sam founded New Economy

Consulting, a consulting firm in Portland

Oregon that provides cannabis investors

with services including identifying viable

real estate, acquiring start up capital,

navigating the regulatory process, and

lobbying local municipalities to ensure

workable regulations fit client needs.

Sam got his start in drug policy reform

by initiating a SSDP chapter at the Uni-

versity of Oregon in 2009 and has been

engaged in both activism and business

side of the cannabis industry ever since.

Cyndee Clay, Executive Director of HIPS,

16

17

has advocated for, by and with individu-

als engaged in sex work or sex for gain

with since 1995. She has developed harm

reduction based programs and pro-

vided technical assistance and training

for medical and social service providers

both in the U.S. and internationally on

topics including HIV Prevention, LGBT

Sensitivity, Sex Work and Harm Re-

duction. Cyndee served as foundation

representative on the Ms. Foundation’s

first collaborative for Healthy Girls/

Healthy Women, and serves on Wash-

ington DC’s Community HIV Prevention

Planning Group, and the Health Depart-

ment’s working group on Substance Use

and HIV, and represents the District of

Columbia on the national Urban Coalition

of HIV/AIDS Prevention Services.

Jess Cochrane is a JD/MPH student at

Northeastern University School of Law

and Tufts University School of Medicine.

She is an alumna of AmeriCorps NYC

Community HealthCorps and co-founded

NUSL SSDP. In 2013, Jess completed her

MPH capstone, “Mandated Reporting of

Substance-Exposed Newborns in an Era

of Changing Marijuana Laws,” with Na-

tional Advocates for Pregnant Women.

She is co-founder of Family Law & Can-

nabis Alliance (FLCA) and has worked in

community health centers, legal services

agencies, and public defenders’ offices.

She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese

and passionate about language access,

reproductive justice, and policies to sup-

port families in diverse urban communities.

Stacia Cosner loves her job working as

Deputy Director for Students for Sen-

sible Drug Policy in Washington, DC. Her

areas of responsibility include manage-

ment, finances, administration, event

planning, program implementation,

development, communication, and data.

On Wednesdays during the summer, you

can find Stacia playing softball on the

national mall as co-captain of The One

Hitters, a co-ed congressional league

softball team comprised of DC drug

policy reformers and friends.

Troy Dayton was formerly the Marijuana

Policy Project’s top fundraiser and lead

liaison to the legal cannabis industry. The

dues paying members of MPP recently

elected Troy to the board with more

than 75% of the vote in a 3-way race. He

co-founded Students for Sensible Drug

Policy (now on over 200 campuses), and

helped launch and serve as the first sales

director at Renewable Choice Energy

(recently named the #1 green power

provider by the EPA). He is a founding

board member of the National Cannabis

Industry Association. In his spare time

Troy enjoys singing karaoke and planning

and blogging about Burning Man.

John Decker SSDP Alumnus John

Decker works for Mountain Medicines,

one of Colorado’s top infused edibles

production company as a chocolatiere

and production artist. In 2010, John

served as the GOTV Field Coordinator

for SSDP during California’s Proposition

19 referendum. John has been involved

with the drug policy reform movement

and SSDP since 2006, when he joined his

SSDP chapter at the University of Mary-

land. There he served as Outreach chair,

Vice President, and Overall Good Dude.

Ben Droz was not unlike you - a passion-

ate college student hungry for change.

An internship with Vote Hemp turned

into a job out of college, and Ben has

been working on hemp in Congress ever

since. Ben regularly meets with Congres-

sional staff, corresponds with activists

and volunteers around the country, and

works on strategy implementation to

educate about the differences between

hemp and marijuana. Ben graduated

from Goucher College in 2009 and cur-

rently resides in Washington, DC.

Evan Eisenberg is a consultant to Florida

cannabusiness Medical Alternative Solu-

tions (MAS). Evan began working for

MAS after graduating from the University

of South Florida, where he worked for

the Wellness Center developing alcohol

and other drug peer education materials.

In 2012, Evan founded and was elected

president of the USF SSDP chapter,

helping develop a 911 Good Samaritan

Policy. Evan was elected to SSDP’s board

of directors in October 2013 and focuses

on fundraising for SSDP’s national office.

Evan serves as a national staff member

for the AMPLIFY Project, bringing harm

reduction and policy reform information

to live music events.

Sabrina Fendrick serves as the Direc-

tor of Strategic Partnerships for the

Washington DC-based National Orga-

nization for the Reform of Marijuana

Laws (NORML). She recently moved to

Denver, Colorado to open NORML’s first

satellite office, and dually serves as the

chapter coordinator for the southeast

and western regions of the country.

In 2010 she established the NORML

Women’s Alliance, and remains com-

mitted to empowering female activists

and entrepreneurs in the movement and

industry. Sabrina has been quoted in

several national and international news

publications including the AP, Fortune

Magazine, the Washington Post, and the

London Times. She is a member of the

SSDP Advisory Council and serves on the

Advisory Board for the Marijuana Majority.

Alec Foster is an activist engineer in

San Francisco, California. Named NYU’s

“Most Influential Student” and “Future

Most Notable Alumni” for his harm re-

duction evangelism, Alec is a rising star

of networked advocacy. He is a member

of the Board of Directors of Students for

Sensible Drug Policy, and co-founded

the chapter at New York University in

2010. He is the co-founder and Execu-

tive Director of Student Net Alliance, an

international movement of digital rights

activists on college campuses. Alec is a

Technology Strategist at Google, where

he develops scalable solutions across

internal platforms.

Steve Fox is the director of VS Strate-

gies, a lobbying affiliate of the Vicente

Sederberg law firm in Denver, Colorado.

In 2010, he co-founded the National

Cannabis Industry Association based on

the belief that the industry needed direct

representation in Washington, DC. More

recently, he co-founded the Council on

Responsible Cannabis Regulation, which

is dedicated to promoting responsible

regulation at the state level. Steve also

co-founded SAFER, a Colorado-based

organization dedicated to educating the

public about the relative harms of mari-

18

juana and alcohol. And in 2011-2012, he

co-drafted Amendment 64 and managed

the history-making campaign for the

Marijuana Policy Project.

Major Neill Franklin, executive director

of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

(LEAP), is a 33-year police veteran who

led multi-jurisdictional anti-narcotics

task forces for the Maryland State Police

and ran training for the Baltimore Police

Department. After seeing several of his

law enforcement friends killed in the line

of fire while enforcing drug policies, Neill

realized he needed to work to change

these laws that cause so much harm but

do nothing to reduce drug use.

Frances Fu is a senior at Northwestern

University studying Social Policy with

a minor in Business Institutions. She

re-founded the Northwestern chapter

of Students for Sensible Drug Policy her

freshman year (2011). Through SSDP, she

found an internship with Tetzlaff Law Of-

fices and helps write and review applica-

tions for cannabis cultivation centers and

dispensary licenses. Some of you may

know her as “The Drug Policy Dealer,”

but offline, she serves on Northwestern

University’s Alcohol Coalition, Campus

Coalition on Sexual Violence, and is

the current Panhellenic President. This

upcoming year, she is hoping to write

her senior thesis on something related to

drug policy and is looking for good ideas!

Lauren Galik is the Director of Criminal

Justice Reform at Reason Foundation, a

nonprofit libertarian think-tank that pub-

lishes Reason magazine, Reason.com,

and Reason TV. Her work focuses on a

variety of issues including (but not lim-

ited to) prison reform, drug policy, and

sentencing reform – particularly at the

state level. Lauren graduated from The

Ohio State University with a B.A. in Politi-

cal Science and International Relations.

Brian Gilbert works as the Events Coor-

dinator at the National Cannabis Industry

Association, the only trade association

representing cannabis businesses on the

national level. He got his start in drug

policy after helping to found SSDP at

VCU in Richmond, VA in 2009. Brian

joined SSDP’s live music activism based

side-project the AMPLIFY Project in 2010

as an Outreach Coordinator transform-

ing it over four years into a leading voice

for drug policy reform & harm reduction

within the live music community. In addi-

tion to his work with NCIA and AMPLIFY,

Brian also sits on the Board of Directors

of DanceSafe.

Brooke Gilbert is the director of events

& education for the National Cannabis

Industry Association. Prior to joining

NCIA, Brooke served as the Outreach

and Events Coordinator for medical can-

nabis patient-advocacy group Americans

for Safe Access, where she facilitated

the organization’s first national confer-

ence. Brooke has also been instrumental

in program development as an intern

for Students for Sensible Drug Policy,

where she coordinated the first round of

mentors & mentees of the Sister-to-Sister

program and continues to volunteer as

the director of development & special

projects for the AMPLIFY project. Addi-

tionally, she sits on the board of direc-

tors for the non-profit harm reduction

organization DanceSafe. Brooke cur-

rently resides in Denver, Colorado with

her husband Brian and dog Lola.

Dan Goldman is the only person in SSDP

to have attended every national confer-

ence. Since 1999, he has been an active

chapter leader, student and non-student

Board member, Director of Outreach

and Alumni in 2005-2006, and since

last December, is once again serving in

a non-student capacity on the Board of

Directors. He is the founder of leGAYlize

It!, the nation’s only LGBT-specific drug

policy reform organization and currently

works with the New York Cannabis Alli-

ance as the Director of Community Rela-

tions. He is thrilled to be a regular guest

on Marijuana Today and hopes you’ll all

give a listen to Never Stop Exploring, a

new, long form interview podcast with

SSDP’s and drug policy reform’s most

dynamic leaders, past and present.

Dede Goldsmith, mother of Shelley

Goldsmith, has already collected over

1,000 signatures on her petition website,

AmendTheRaveAct.org, launched on

August 31, 2014. She plans to take the

petition along with proposed amend-

ments to the RAVE Act to Congress this

fall. Goldsmith says the RAVE Act is no

longer relevant to today’s EDM festivals

and concerts. Instead, she says it stands

in the way of event organizers taking

steps to make their venues safer for the

hundreds of thousands of young people

who regularly attend them.

Shea Gunther founded the Rochester

Cannabis Coalition at the Rochester

Institute of Technology in New York in

1997, which became the first chapter of

SSDP the following year. Since then he’s

worked in the fields of technology and

media and most recently returned to the

world of drug policy as producer and co-

founder of the hit podcast “Marijuana To-

day” along with fellow panelist Kris Lotlikar.

Kandice Hawes is the current President

of California State University Fullerton

Students for Sensible Drug Policy and is

a Public Administration and Political Sci-

ence double major. In 2001, after losing

her financial aid due to a drug charge,

she founded the Orange County chapter

of NORML in 2003. Eleven years later,

OC NORML now has hundreds of mem-

bers who attend meetings and thousands

who receive email updates. Hawes is also

the Principal Officer of a Political Action

Committee that is running a measure on

the November 2014 Santa Ana ballot to

regulate the medical marijuana collectives.

Shawn Heller is a civil rights and criminal

defense attorney. In 2012 Shawn, along

with Joshua Glickman, formed the Social

Justice Law Collective. Shawn has been

actively working for drug policy reform

since 1998, and was one of the found-

ers of SSDP. After graduating college,

Shawn served as SSDP’s Executive

Director from 2000 through 2003. Since

then, Shawn has served the organization

as a Board member, advisor, and mentor.

Shawn holds a J.D. from Georgetown

University Law Center and a B.A. from

George Washington University. During

college he served in the White House

as an intern for the Deputy Director for

Political Affairs.

19

Mikayla Hellwich graduated in Spring

2014 from the University of Maryland and

has been an active member and chap-

ter leader within Students for Sensible

Drug Policy since 2010. Since becom-

ing involved with SSDP she has taken

a deeper interest in live music and how

drugs, harm reduction, and personal

safety shape the experience. She hopes

that highlighting her experiences as a

reformer and live event participant can

help re-shape the conversations we’re

all having about substances and foster

safer, more compassionate communities

for partiers. Earlier this year she interned

for the Director of Media Relations at

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

and has since gained a full-time position

there. Mikayla lives in Washington D.C.

with her python Sterling.

Trevor Hosterman is the head grower

and cultivation manager for Good Meds

Network. He began working with Good

Meds in August of 2012 after relocating

from South Eastern Pennsylvania to Den-

ver, Colorado. Before becoming a Colo-

rado transplant, Trevor attended West

Chester University of Pennsylvania where

he co-founded a chapter of Students for

Sensible Drug Policy in late 2009. Since

graduation, Trevor has remained actively in-

volved with SSDP by volunteering with their

side project: The AMPLIFY Project. Current-

ly, he volunteers with AMPLIFY as a national

outreach and merchandise coordinator.

Kat Humphries is a legal assistant at

Vicente Sederberg. She joined Vicente

Sederberg in 2013 after spending a year

working as a legal clerk for an intellectual

property law firm focusing on patents

and trademarks. Kat became involved in

drug policy in 2010 when she founded

a chapter of Students for Sensible Drug

Policy at the College of Charleston. In

college, she changed marijuana policies

at a collegiate level, expanded the Col-

lege’s Good Samaritan Policy, interned

with the 9th Circuit Solicitor’s Office’s

Juvenile Arbitration program, and served

as the chairwoman of the College’s

judicial board for two years. Currently,

Kat sits on Students for Sensible Drug

Policy’s Board of Directors.

Stephanie Izquieta is a senior at Bing-

hamton University majoring in Philoso-

phy, Politics, & Law. She interned this

past summer at the Drug Policy Alliance

and is the founder and current chapter

leader of Binghamton’s SSDP chapter.

While at Binghamton she joined the

TEDx executive board and helped orga-

nize one of the largest academic TEDx

events among thousands in over eighty

countries around the world, with an audi-

ence of nearly 1,300 students, faculty,

and community members. Stephanie also

serves on the Board for the Student Net

Alliance and is a Google Student Ambas-

sador for her University.

Stefanie Jones is nightlife community

engagement manager at the Drug Policy

Alliance, based in New York. In this role

she introduces harm reduction principles

and drug policy alternatives to party-

goers, public health officials and city

nightlife regulators across the U.S. In

her prior role within the organization as

event manager she produced four pro-

gressively larger editions of the biennial

International Drug Policy Reform Confer-

ence, as well as numerous local policy

conferences, fundraisers and coalition-

building meetings.

Rob Kampia co-founded the Marijuana

Policy Project in 1995 and has served as

its executive director ever since. Rob is

the architect of most of the state-level

marijuana laws that have been enacted

in the United States since 2000, includ-

ing the historic 2012 campaign to legalize

marijuana in Colorado, and numerous

decriminalization and medical marijuana

laws. Rob has provided fiery testimony

before Congress twice, as well as testify-

ing before nine state legislatures. Rob

grew up in Harleysville, Pennsylvania;

served three months in a county jail for

growing marijuana for personal use; was

elected student body president of Penn

State University; and graduated with

honors in 1993.

Sahra Kant Sara Arnold, aka Sahra Kant,

is a hard-working drug policy advocate

and activist committed to ending the

persecution of pregnant women and

parents (of all genders) for cannabis

use in criminal or civil matters. She is

Co-Founder of Family Law & Cannabis

Alliance (FLCA) and is currently on the

leadership committee of SSDP’s Out-

reach, Recruitment & Diversity Commit-

tee (ORD) where she is Vice-Chair. Sara

is the mother of two little girls and lives

in central Massachusetts. She has faced

CPS three times (thus far) for her medi-

cal marijuana use.

Joshua Kappel is a partner at Vicente

Sederberg LLC, a national law firm dedi-

cated to the intersection of marijuana

policy, government relations, and busi-

ness law with a focus on the interplay of

state, federal, and international marijua-

na laws. Mr. Kappel graduated from the

University of Denver, Sturm College of

Law. While in law school, Josh received

both the Patton Boggs Public Policy

Fellowship and the Public Interest Law

Clerkship to work for Sensible Colorado.

Josh also interned with the National

ACLU’s Drug Law Reform Project, the

Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, and was

founder of Students for Sensible Drug

Policy of Truman State University.

Khurshid Khoja is Principal at Green-

bridge Corporate Counsel, a business

law firm which represents clientele from

across the legal cannabis industry. Khur-

shid currently serves on the founding

Board of the California Cannabis Industry

Association and the Illinois Cannabis In-

dustry Association. While serving as The

ArcView Group’s first General Counsel,

Khurshid helped ArcView CEO Troy Dayton

launch the ArcView Angel Network (AAN)

— providing advice on securities laws com-

pliance, drafting membership and other

critical path agreements. Khurshid earned

his J.D. at the University of California,

Berkeley School of Law, where he served as

President of the Class of 2001.

James Kowalsky (SSDP Alum: North-

western 2009) is the Engagement Ser-

vices & Practice Enhancement Specialist

at Heartland Health Outreach (HHO) in

Chicago, IL. As an outreach worker with

the HHO PATH Team, James works with

people who are homeless to link them to

housing, healthcare services, and other

resources. He incorporates harm reduc-

20

tion into his work with clients engaged

in potentially risky behaviors like drug

use, sexual activity and interpersonal

conflicts. In addition to outreach work,

James facilitates trainings and provides

support to organizations which are

adapting their practices to incorporate

harm reduction, housing first, motivational

interviewing, and trauma-informed care.

Kris Krane serves as a Principal and

Managing Partner at 4Front Advisors,

a medical cannabis dispensary consult-

ing firm. Kris has dedicated his career

to reforming the nation’s failed and

misguided drug policies, having served

as associate director of the National

Organization for the Reform of Marijuana

Laws from 2000-2005 and executive

director of Students for Sensible Drug

Policy from 2006-2009. During this

time the organization experienced rapid

chapter growth, and led a successful

campaign to convince members of Con-

gress to scale back the HEA Aid Elimina-

tion Penalty, the law that automatically

denies federal financial aid to students

with drug convictions. Kris currently sits

on the national board of directors of the

National Cannabis Industry Association

and Common Sense for Drug Policy, as

well as the advisory council for Students

for Sensible Drug Policy. He also served

as Associate Editor of See Change Strat-

egy’s first of its kind medical marijuana

market report in 2011 and the ArcView

Market Research Report follow up in

2013, which analyzed the value of the

retail medical marijuana market.

Michael Krawitz is a United States Air

Force Veteran. He is the Executive Direc-

tor of Veterans for Medical Cannabis

access and is on the board of advisers of

Patients out of Time, a medical cannabis

patient advocacy organization. Michael

has become a leading voice for Drug

policy reform advocacy at the United Na-

tions Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

Ed Krayewski is an associate editor of

Reason 24/7 at Reason.com. Before join-

ing Reason, he was an associate produc-

er for FreedomWatch with Judge Napoli-

tano, a media producer for Fox News and

Fox Business, and an assistant producer

at NBC Learn. He spent two years as a

Seventh Grade Language Arts & Social

Studies teacher in his native Newark be-

fore completing an M.S. in Journalism at

Columbia University. He translated his fa-

ther’s novel Skyliner, about life in Eastern

Europe in the aftermath of World War 2.

Ed completed a B.S. and M.A. in Interna-

tional Relations at Seton Hall University.

Alex Kreit is an Associate Professor and

Director of the Center for Law and Social

Justice at Thomas Jefferson School of

Law. Alex was a member of the found-

ing Board of Directors of Students for

Sensible Drug Policy and served on

SSDP’s Board from 1999 to 2005 and

again from 2010 to 2012. He is author

of the casebook Controlled Substances:

Crime, Regulation, and Policy (Carolina

Academic Press, 2013) and co-author of

the reference book Drug Abuse and the

Law Sourcebook (with Gerald F. Uelmen)

(West, 2013 (updated annually)).”

Amber Iris Langston lives in Kansas City,

Missouri, where she serves as a Board

Director for Show-Me Cannabis, leading

Missouri marijuana legalization educa-

tion efforts as Executive Director of the

national 501c3 organization American

Victory Foundation. Amber previously

served on the Board of Directors, and

later as outreach director and interna-

tional liaison, for SSDP. Amber was then

media liaison for Prop 19 in California in

2010, and worked briefly with Americans

for Safe Access as a field coordinator.

Amber has a particular passion for the

intersection of drug policy with issues of

gender and race, which is the focus of

her current work.

Ann Edwards Lee grew up in Ponchatou-

la, Louisiana. After finishing Ponchatoula

High School, she entered The University

of Texas. There she met Bob Lee, who

not only made her a Texan but a Repub-

lican! They were married in 1951, have

lived in Houston since 1956, and have 5

sons, 4 granddaughters and 2 “greats”. In

1990, the Lee’s fourth son, Richard, had

an accident that made him a paraplegic.

When Richard told them that marijuana

was good for him, they had to accept the

fact that our government had been ly-

ing about marijuana. Since that time the

Lees have dedicated much of their time

and resources to educating on the evils

of the Drug War.

Mike Liszewski, JD, is Government

Affairs Director at Americans for Safe

Access. He spent his early career as a

community organizer forming after-

school youth programs in southeast Bal-

timore, MD. Mike has successfully lobbied

in DC, Maryland, and elsewhere to help:

approve and improve medical marijuana

laws; pass Good Samaritan legislation;

and block anti-community “gang injunc-

tion” legislation. Federally, he was the

part of the lobbying effort that earned

the first successful medical marijuana

vote in Congress. Beyond his work at

ASA, Mike advocates for DC statehood,

plays guitar in SWALTB, and pitches for

the One Hitters softball team.

Andrew Livingston serves as a policy

analyst for Vicente Sederberg and a

contract researcher for ArcView Group

where he does policy and market re-

search for cannabis businesses. He first

worked alongside Vicente Sederberg in

2012 during the Amendment 64 cam-

paign in Colorado. Andrew started in

drug policy while at Colgate University

and founded a chapter of Students for

Sensible Drug Policy in 2009. During this

time he focused his academic studies on

the economics of illegal markets and the

harms they create for societies around

the world. In October, Andrew was appoint-

ed by the Colorado Department of Revenue

to a panel determining interim production

caps for the new marijuana industry.

Kris Lotlikar is President of one of the

leading renewable energy companies

in the U.S. which won the Green Power

Supplier of the Year award from the

EPA in 2013. His business has over 50

Fortune 500 clients and he is advisor to

numerous clean technology companies

and sits on the new innovators council

at the World Resource Institute. Kris is

also host of Marijuana Today, a podcast

provider serious discussion and analysis

of marijuana business and politics. He

was a founder and National Director of

Student for Sensible Drug Policy and sits

21

on the Board of Directors for the League

of Young Voters, the Flex Your Rights

Foundation and the Arcview Group, the

nation’s leading marijuana industry in-

vestment and research organization.

Tim Lynch is Director of Cato’s Project

on Criminal Justice. Under his direction,

Cato has become a leading voice in sup-

port of the Bill of Rights and civil liber-

ties. In 2000, he served on the National

Committee to Prevent Wrongful Execu-

tions. Lynch has also filed several amicus

briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court in cases

involving constitutional rights. He is the

editor of In the Name of Justice: Leading

Experts Reexamine the Classic Article

“The Aims of the Criminal Law” and After

Prohibition: An Adult Approach to Drug

Policies in the 21st Century. Tim also

blogs extensively at the Cato Institute’s Na-

tional Police Misconduct Reporting Project.

Ciarán Maher is the Executive Director

of NORML Ireland national chapter, and

Chapter Leader with SSDP at the Na-

tional University of Ireland, Galway.

Katherine Mangu-Ward is managing

editor of Reason magazine. She writes

about food, space, and education for

Reason and Reason.com. Mangu-Ward

is a 2013-2014 Future Tense fellow at the

New America Foundation. Previously,

she worked as a reporter for The Weekly

Standard magazine and as a researcher

at The New York Times op-ed page. Her

work has appeared in The Wall Street

Journal, The Washington Post, The Los

Angeles Times, The New York Times

online, and numerous other publica-

tions. Mangu-Ward is a graduate of Yale

University, where she received a B.A.

in political science and philosophy. She

lives in Washington, D.C.

Alyson Martin is an award-winning

journalist, a photographer, and an editor.

She focuses on investigative journalism,

health reporting, and drug policy. Her

work has been published by the New

York Times, The Nation, The Atlantic, the

Albany Times Union, the Ithaca Journal

and the 2011 edition of the book Our

Bodies, Ourselves. Martin is a graduate of

the Columbia University Graduate School

of Journalism. She is a lifelong Yankees fan.

Lauren Mendelsohn is a second-year

student at the University of California,

Irvine School of Law. This summer she

worked as a law clerk for a corporate

cannabis firm. Miss Mendelsohn founded

a chapter of LSSDP during her first year

at UCI, which has already become on of

the most active student groups at the

law school. Under her leadership, UCI

LSSDP was chosen to host a major sym-

posium in Spring 2015. Miss Mendelsohn

was heavily influenced by SSDP during

her undergraduate career at the Univer-

sity of Maryland, where she served as

President and later Outreach Director for

the chapter.

Amanda Muller got involved with SSDP

in November of 2010, when she joined

the Florida State University chapter as

a college sophomore. Amanda and the

FSU chapter members were the impetus

for ensuring the successful passing and

promotion of FSU’s Medical Amnesty

Policy in 2012. She was additionally in-

volved in collaborating with SSDP chap-

ters throughout the state to advocate

for Florida’s 911 Good Samaritan Act.

Amanda has worked with government

health departments, cannabis consulting

firms and harm reduction organizations to

advocate for more sensible policies, includ-

ing drug overdose and infectious disease

prevention, primarily in the U.S. South.

Reid Murdoch is a student at the Univer-

sity of Michigan Law School. He founded

the Michigan LSSDP chapter in Fall 2013.

Reid spent his 1L summer working for

the ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project

in NYC, and is focusing his studies on

criminal defense.

Kat Murti is Digital Marketing Manager

at the Cato Institute and a member of

SSDP’s Board of Directors. She currently

serves as chair of the Outreach, Recruit-

ment, and Diversity Committee. Kat has

been actively involved with SSDP since

January 2009 and was named an Alumni

All Star in December of 2010 and a

Spotlighted Alum in January of 2012. Kat

first became involved with drug policy

in 2007 when she joined the Dallas-

Fort Worth chapter of NORML. She

served as Bay Area Regional Director

of California’s Proposition 19 campaign

and has worked at the Criminal Justice

Policy Foundation. Kat is a graduate of

UC:Berkeley and Oaksterdam.

Tony Newman is director of media

relations for the Drug Policy Alliance, a

position he has held since 2000. New-

man has more than 20 years of public

relations experience. Before joining the

organization, he was the media director

for the human rights organization Global

Exchange and co-founded the public

relations firm Communication Works.

Newman received his B.A. from the Uni-

versity of California Santa Cruz.

Evan Nison is the Executive Director of

NORML New Jersey and Director of East

Coast Cannabis Division for Terra Tech

(TRTC), a sustainable agricultural com-

pany looking to enter the marijuana in-

dustry. In New York he is the Co-Founder

and Director of the NY Cannabis Alli-

ance, which has helped craft the marijua-

na legalization bill and worked closely on

the Compassionate Care Act campaign.

He was also President of Ithaca Students

for Sensible Drug Policy for 4 years,

which was rated the #1 college drug law

reform chapter in the country in 2011.

Brandon Paroly is a third-year student

at George Washington University Law

School, and is current president of GW

Law SSDP. Brandon works at LawIQ, a le-

gal analytics firm, and has a background

in financial regulatory law and hedge

fund consulting. He is also a cum laude

graduate of the University of Pennsylva-

nia and president of the alumni club.

Jonathan Perri is the Deputy Campaigns

Director at Change.org, the largest

online campaigns platform in the world

with more than 75 million users. Jon

has helped craft strategy for some of

the largest and most successful online

campaigns in the world. Previously,

Jon served as the Associate Director of

Students for Sensible Drug Policy from

2008 to 2011.

Victor Pinho A dedicated activist and

seasoned marketing professional, Vic-

22

tor got his start in drug policy reform

in 2004 when he co-founded NORML

and SSDP chapters at the University

of Maryland, College Park. For over a

decade, Victor has remained deeply

involved with SSDP at various capacities

and was recognized as an Outstanding

Alum in 2008. Victor’s professional life

doesn’t stray too far from his passions.

As Director of Marketing and Commu-

nications for Berkeley Patients Group,

California’s oldest, continuously operat-

ing medical cannabis dispensary, Victor

has become a thought-leader in his field

and is pioneering innovative marketing

techniques targeted for the medical can-

nabis industry.

Nushin Rashidian is an award-winning

Iranian American journalist. Rashidian, a

Columbia University Graduate School of

Journalism alumna, focuses her reporting

on drug policy, aging issues, and stories

of injustice. Her work has appeared in

the New York Times, The Nation, Tehran

Bureau, Esquire, AARP Bulletin, CBS

News, and The Guardian US. She is a

Californian still adjusting to the seasons

in the northeast.

Vikrant P. Reddy is a senior policy ana-

lyst in the Center for Effective Justice

at the Texas Public Policy Foundation,

where he coordinates the Right On Crime

campaign. He has authored several

reports on criminal justice policy and is a

frequent speaker and media commenta-

tor on the topic. Reddy has worked as a

research assistant at The Cato Institute,

as a law clerk to the Honorable Gina M.

Benavides of the Thirteenth Court of

Appeals of Texas, and as an attorney in

private practice, focusing on trial and ap-

pellate litigation.

Mike Riggs is director of communica-

tions for Families Against Mandatory

Minimums. A former journalist, he has

covered civil liberties and criminal justice

policy for Atlantic Media, Reason Maga-

zine, the Washington City Paper, The

Daily Caller, the Nation, the Weekly Stan-

dard, The New Republic, and other out-

lets. In 2013, his investigative reporting

for Reason was recognized by both the

Los Angeles Press Club and the Western

Publishing Association. He is a former

judge for the Association of Alternative

Newsmedia Awards, and a graduate of

Stetson University in DeLand, Florida.

Nick Rosenberg is an SSDP chapter lead-

er at the University of Maryland (UMD).

His passion for social justice is what drew

him to drug policy reform. Nick has con-

siderable experience volunteering and

for the past 2 years was a leader with

UMD Alternative Breaks, a service learn-

ing program where student led groups

go on week long trips focusing on a par-

ticular social issue. Nick is also a leader

of Delta Alpha Pi, the honor society for

students with disabilities, which aims to

improve the rights and perceptions of

individuals with disabilities. This summer

he was an intern for the Criminal Justice

Policy Foundation and SSDP.

Kellen Russoniello is a current board

member of SSDP and Staff Attorney

with the ACLU of San Diego and Impe-

rial Counties, where he works to ensure

pathways to health access instead of to

the criminal justice system. He earned

his JD and MPH from The George

Washington University. Kellen drafted

Good Samaritan overdose prevention

legislation for the District of Columbia,

which became law in March, 2013. He

has volunteered drafting motions to seal

criminal records, providing outreach to

sex workers and homeless people, and

teaching middle-school children about

the Constitution and Bill of Rights. He

has held several internships with various

drug policy reform organizations.

Jeronimo Saldaña is the legislative and

organizing coordinator for the movement

building team at the Drug Policy Alliance.

Prior to joining the Drug Policy Alliance,

Saldaña worked as a political organizer

for a Service Employees International

Union (SEIU) affiliate advocating on

behalf of working families. Jeronimo has

also worked on environmental justice,

civic engagement, and immigrant rights

while serving as a program associate at

the Open Society Foundations. Saldaña

is a native East L.A. Chicano with a B.A.

in Chican/o studies from the University

of California Santa Barbara.

Adam Schneider, MA, MSW, is Director

of Community Relations at Health Care

for the Homeless (HCH), where he works

on state and local public policy and

community initiatives related to issues of

health and homelessness. He had been

an organizer of several grassroots initia-

tives undertaken by people experienc-

ing homelessness. Prior to HCH, Adam

worked as a case manager for people

living in poverty in Baltimore. In addi-

tion to his work at HCH, Adam teaches

courses on philosophy, political theory,

social work, public health and public

policy at several colleges and universities

in Maryland.

Mark Schumann is a leading advocate

and community educator on poverty

and homelessness in Baltimore. He is a

founding member of Baltimore’s ‘Faces

of Homelessness’ Speakers Bureau. He

also helped start Baltimore’s street news-

paper, Word in the Street, for which he is

editor-in-chief. Mark is also on the Board

of Directors at Heath Care for the Home-

less of Maryland.

Dylan Schwartz is SSDP’s Intern Program

development consultant and is execu-

tive director of Your Vote Counts PAC. In

Staten Island, Dylan runs the Youth Lead-

ership Academy, empowering young

people in New York City to get involved

in electoral and issue based campaigns

while providing the training they need to

succeed in a professional environment.

When in college, Dylan served as a mem-

ber of the Orlando Anti-Discrimination

Ordinance Committee, rallying young

people to secure Domestic Partnerships

for all couples, and served as a field orga-

nizer in 2012 for Obama for America.

Christian Sederberg is a partner and

founding member of Vincente Sederberg

LLC, one of the first securities practices

in the world dedicated specifically to

helping marijuana industry companies

go public. Christian was an integral part

of Colorado’s Amendment 64 campaign

and also offered advice to the Uruguayan

Government ahead of the introduction of

Cannabis Regulation in the country.

Catherine Sevcenko is the Associate Di-

23

rector of Litigation for FIRE. She gradu-

ated magna cum laude from George

Mason School of Law after a career as

a Foreign Service Officer. Postings in

Budapest, Munich, and Moscow before

and after the fall of the Berlin Wall gave

her a deep appreciation for the power

of free speech. After law school, Cath-

erine clerked on the Sixth Circuit Court

of Appeals before starting work as an

associate at Steptoe & Johnson, LLC.

After leaving Steptoe, Catherine joined

the appellate group at the U.S. Trustees

Program at the Department of Justice

and was interim Executive Director for

a non-profit in Washington, D.C. that

teaches chess to children.

Jeremy Sharp, a proud native of Georgia

is a student at the University of North

Georgia where he serves as the President

of the SSDP chapter there. He is also a

Board Member and Student Liaison for

Peachtree NORML, Regional Coordinator

for Amplify Project, and Board Mem-

ber for Georgia Overdose Prevention.

Jeremy has testified in front of the House

Judiciary/Non-Civil committee in favor

of HB 965 and was personally com-

mended by the Georgia state House and

state Senate and Governor Nathan Deal

for his efforts. Jeremy was instrumental

in SSDP’s efforts to enact the Medical

Amnesty and Naloxone access law in

Georgia, in early 2014.

Steve Silverman is the founder and exec-

utive director of Flex Your Rights (Flex),

a creative educational nonprofit build-

ing better tools for navigating police

encounters. Flex produced the popular

educational movies, BUSTED: The Citi-

zen’s Guide to Surviving Police Encoun-

ters and 10 Rules for Dealing with Police.

Their YouTube channel has surpassed

35 million views. Flex is now developing

better mobile apps for recording and

monitoring the police.

Eric E. Sterling, J.D. SSDP National

Board since 2004; supporter since 1999.

President of the Criminal Justice Policy

Foundation since 1989. As a student, he

joined NORML and testified for mari-

juana decriminalization in 1976. Public

defender and volunteer counsel ACLU,

1977-1979. In the 1980s, he was the Assis-

tant Counsel, U.S. House Crime Subcom-

mittee, responsible for laws on drugs,

guns, pornography, and organized crime.

Joining DPA in 1986, he was one of its

first members. He helped found FAMM in

1990, MPP in 1993 and Marijuana Major-

ity in 2012. B. A. 1973, Haverford College;

J. D. 1976, Villanova University. Faculty:

American University (1985-86), George

Washington University (2007-08).

Jesse Stout is a criminal defense lawyer

and criminal justice activist. Since earn-

ing his bar license, he has appeared in

criminal courts across northern Califor-

nia. Jesse graduated from Brown Univer-

sity and University of California Hastings

College of the Law. During law school

Jesse worked for public defenders and

analyzed criminal justice legislation at

the California Assembly Public Safety

Committee. Before law school, Jesse was

executive director of the Rhode Island

Patient Advocacy Coalition. There, he

organized the medical marijuana patient

community in support of the RI Medical

Marijuana Act, which overcame three

gubernatorial vetoes and now protects

thousands from arrest.

Drew Stromberg is our Outreach Direc-

tor. He oversees our two Outreach Co-

ordinators and our Campus Coordinator

program. Drew got involved in Students

for Sensible Drug Policy in 2009 when

he founded the chapter at West Virginia

University. Drew presided over the WVU

chapter from 2009 to 2011 and interned

at the national office in Washington, D.C.

in the summer of 2010. For Colorado’s

Amendment 64 campaign, Drew built

a specialized phonebank tool which

students and activists from across the

country used to make more than 18,000

phone calls to Colorado voters in sup-

port of Amendment 64. Additionally,

Drew helped coordinate and oversee the

on-the-ground student-oriented GOTV

effort in the final days of the campaign,

where volunteers engaged with more

than 10,000 student voters on six Colo-

rado college campuses.

Kylee Sunderlin is a Soros Justice Ad-

vocacy Fellow at National Advocates for

Pregnant Women, a reproductive justice

organization that protects the rights,

health, and dignity of those who are

pregnant and parenting by organizing

with state and national coalitions, provid-

ing pro bono legal assistance, supporting

defense attorneys in criminal and civil

child welfare cases, and bringing legal

and medical expertise to media and

professionals who work with pregnant

people. Ms. Sunderlin’s work focuses

primarily on challenging punitive re-

sponses to opioid use during pregnancy,

including medication-assisted treatment,

through public education and targeted

litigation. She received her B.A. and J.D.

from the University of Michigan and is a

proud double wolverine.

Rex Tai is a senior at Northwestern

studying Biology, minoring in Sociologi-

cal Research, and pursuing a premedi-

cine track. He succeeded to the presi-

dency for 2014-2015 following a year of

tenure as treasurer for SSDP at NU, and

he hopes to see his chapter grow even

more and establish a legacy of sensible

drug policy and education at his school.

He advocates discussion on diversity and

inequality within Northwestern’s Asian

American and minority communities,

promotes harm reduction in all parts of

life from sex to eating, and performs neu-

robiology research with a focus on drug

mechanisms. When he needs a breather

from drug policy, he enjoys hip-hop

dancing with ReFresH Dance Crew, cook-

ing anything imaginable so he can take

pictures of his creations, and discovering

new electronic or classical music.

Olivia Teehan is the SSDP Chapter

Leader at UCC (University College Cork)

in Cork, Ireland.

Eapen Thampy is the founder and execu-

tive director of Americans for Forfeiture

Reform, a nonprofit advocating the re-

form of civil and criminal asset forfeiture

at the state and federal level. Eapen also

serves as the Midwest Director for the

Our America Initiative, and is one of the

founders of the Show-Me Cannabis mari-

juana legalization movement in Missouri.

Shaleen Title is co-founder of THC Staff-

24

ing Group, a recruitment firm for the

marijuana industry. She serves as a regu-

latory and compliance expert for 4Front

Advisors, and previously, she helped

make history as part of the team which

legalized marijuana for the first time in

2012. Shaleen has won several awards

for her advocacy work and her efforts to

bring more women and people of color

into drug policy reform, including the

Hunter S. Thompson Young Attorney

Award and the High Times Freedom

Fighter Award. She served on the SSDP

Board of Directors from 2009 to 2013

and currently serves as a board member

for Marijuana Majority. You can follow her

on Twitter at @shaleentitle.

Sam Tracy is chairman of Students for

Sensible Drug Policy’s board of direc-

tors, elected in March 2012 after getting

started with SSDP as a chapter leader at

the University of Connecticut. He works

as Communications & Marketing Coordi-

nator at 4Front Advisors, a medical mari-

juana consulting firm, where he assists in

drafting license applications for state-

legal marijuana businesses and repre-

sents the firm at industry events. Sam

also works as Social Media & Activism

Director for TechFreedom, a technology

policy think tank based in Washington,

DC. He now lives in Boston.

Mason Tvert is director of communica-

tions for Marijuana Policy Project. He

co-directed the successful campaign

in support of Amendment 64, the 2012

ballot initiative to regulate marijuana

like alcohol in Colorado, co-founded and

directed Safer Alternative For Enjoyable

Recreation (SAFER), and co-authored

Marijuana Is Safer: So why are we driving

people to drink? (Chelsea Green, 2009).

Mason has worked with students to pass

marijuana policy reforms at more than a

dozen colleges and universities. In Janu-

ary 2013, the Denver Post named him

the state’s “Top Thinker” in the area of

politics and government. He is currently

a member of the SAFER board of direc-

tors and a member of the advisory board

for Marijuana Majority.

Jasmine L. Tyler is the senior policy

analyst for global health and drug policy

at the Open Society Foundations, where

she promotes the reform of domestic

and international drug policy. Prior to

joining Open Society, she was deputy

director of national affairs for the Drug

Policy Alliance, where she worked closely

with Congress and the advocacy com-

munity to effectively shape public health,

criminal justice, and health policy. She

has also worked as research director for

the Justice Policy Institute, contribut-

ing to research on the criminal justice

system and juvenile justice reinvest-

ment. Jasmine has contributed to several

publications on mass incarceration, racial

justice, and the war on drugs.

Jurriaan van den Hurk first became

involved with SSDP as a freshman at

Virginia Commonwealth University in

the fall of 2010. He took over leader-

ship of the chapter as co-President the

following year and continued to lead the

chapter until the spring of 2014. During

his time as a chapter leader, he worked

on expanding the university’s on-cam-

pus harm reduction program, Just Say

Know!, lobbying the state legislators reg-

ularly on issues ranging from marijuana

decriminalization to access to TANF by

felony drug offenders, and introducing

a statewide Good Samaritan policy bill

in 2014. He has also conducted scholarly

research on international drug policy

and cartel violence in Mexico at national

student research conferences. Jurriaan

currently works as a data and monitor-

ing specialist in the education field, and

enjoys spending his free time writing and

playing music.

Mitzi Vaughn is the Managing Attorney

for Greenbridge Corporate Counsel. She

also oversees Greenbridge’s Washington

state practice, advising the cannabis in-

dustry regarding corporate, transaction-

al, and employment matters, as well as

adult-use and medical cannabis regula-

tions. Mitzi has represented a wide vari-

ety of cannabis industry leaders: nutrient

manufacturers, cultivators, processors,

retailers, real estate developers, inves-

tors, consultants, and software develop-

ers. She is a member of the National

Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA),

the Coalition for Cannabis Standards &

Ethics (CCSE), and the Washington Mari-

juana Business Association (MJBA). She

obtained her law degree from University

of California, Berkeley, and graduated

magna cum laude from the University of

Texas at San Antonio.

Tyler Vile is a writer, performer, and

advocate for disability rights, LGBTQ+

rights, and drug policy reform. She has

testified in favor of medical cannabis

reform before the Maryland State Legis-

lature for five consecutive years and was

a committed member of University of

Maryland, College Park’s SSDP chapter

for two years. She is a staff writer at

Bluestockings Magazine, a regular con-

tributor to Punk Globe Magazine, and has

performed at Washington, DC’s Queer

Poetry Summit and Slam, Capturing Fire.

Tyler Williams is a current senior at the

University of Connecticut, where he

studies history. His past experiences with

campus media include working as Edi-

tor in Chief of a monthly alternative arts

and politics magazine: “The UConn Free

Press”, and administrating successful

Facebook pages for the Free Press and

SSDP. Currently, Tyler serves as Presi-

dent of UConn SSDP, and hosts their

weekly programming on the campus

radio station.

Rachelle Yeung is a legislative ana-

lyst, lobbyist, and staff attorney at the

Marijuana Policy Project. She works with

grassroots coalitions and legislators to

pass marijuana policy reform bills in a

dozen different states. Rachelle first

became involved with the drug policy

movement as a college student, volun-

teering and attending rallies in Southern

California. In 2012, she founded the Uni-

versity of Colorado Law School chap-

ter of SSDP, which won the Rising Star

Chapter award at the International Con-

ference that year. Rachelle went on to

work for Sensible Colorado, Colorado’s

historic Amendment 64 campaign, and

Vicente Sederberg, the state’s foremost

marijuana law firm.

25

LOCAL INFORMATION

Substance Use

Virginia’s laws are excellent examples of

laws in desperate need of changing by

SSDP members and allies, with particu-

larly harsh penalties. No matter how

unjust, we hope that conference partici-

pants will respect the laws of the State of

Virginia.

Free Meeting Space

Want to present on a topic not covered

by another panel, or provide an alternate

view? Perhaps you’d like to practice a

presentation you’ve been working on, or

host a dialogue. Sign up for open presen-

tation times in the Potomac Room.

Need help?

SSDP’s Conference Hotline will connect

you with a member of SSDP’s staff 24/7.

Dial 202-393-5280, ext 9 to be con-

nected to a staff member.

Local Recovery Group Meetings

SMART Recovery Meetings

Saturday 8:30 - 10:00 am

Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church

One Chevy Chase Circle, N.W.

Lower Level Room 103

Washington, DC

Jack Werstein (202) 829-8566

Saturday 10:00 - 11:30 am

Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church

One Chevy Chase Circle, N.W.

Lower Level Room 103

Washington, DC

Patrick Truman (301) 412-2144

M

Hotel Map

PIOLAMELEE

ROSSLYN

26

M

Key

M

CAPITOL SOUTH

Holiday Inn Rosslyn at Key Bridge

1900 N Fort Myer Dr, Arlington, VA

Metro Station

Piola (Alumni Dinner Location)

1550 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA

Melee Bistro (ORD Dinner Location)

1723 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA

Lobby Day Group Photo Location

27

ADVOCACY & INDUSTRY JOB FAIR

Students for Sensible Drug Policy has

long held a unique space in the drug

policy reform movement: The work that

our members do on their campuses and

in their states prepares them to be lead-

ers in not only drug policy reform, but

also in many intersecting movements.

The list of SSDP alumni doing meaningful

work in social justice, the liberty move-

ment, direct service harm reduction, and

other areas of policy reform is long and

impressive.

State-legal marijuana industries have

opened another door for post-gradua-

tion employment and many of the more

visible leaders of that industry cut their

teeth while founding SSDP and building

their chapters. As they become influen-

tial leaders, SSDP alumni ensure the can-

nabis industry remains deeply connected

to its advocacy roots and maintains the

values of responsibility, transparency,

and social entrepreneurship. Across the

nation, SSDP alumni are filling out the

ranks of entry- mid-level positions at --

or founding -- consulting firms, service

providers, law firms, and, yes, legal mari-

juana providers.

While some used to consider including

SSDP membership on a résumé a liability,

it’s now well-known that many employers

will move SSDPers to top consideration

because of the powerful experiences that

shape their work ethic and philosophy

while in college. Opportunities abound

for young alumni seeking internship or

employment opportunities. SSDP is reg-

ularly contacted by nonprofits and small

businesses alike looking for rockstar

up-and-comers to contribute that special

SSDP ethos to their teams.

And in the coming post-prohibition

world, there may be no more powerful

way to bring science, evidence, and com-

passion to public health and regulation

of drugs — whether alcohol, marijuana,

or others — than to have SSDP students

and alumni engaged in developing and

implementing public campaigns or work-

ing in regulated markets.

So SSDP is expanding the support of-

fered to students and alumni through our

new Career Services program, includ-

ing an online Advocacy + Industry Job

Board, guided internships, and more.

Take a few minutes to visit our inau-

gural Advocacy + Industry Job Fair in

Shenandoah C, where you can learn

more about the Career Services pro-

gram and connect with top employers

who understand that there’s something

special about having an SSDP alumnus

on their team.

28

What’s ORD and how does SSDP define

and promote diversity?

Mission & Values

SSDP Outreach, Recruitment, and Di-

versity Committee (ORD) is a collabora-

tive committee comprised of board and

non-board members, students, alumni,

and community members dedicated to

broadening Students for Sensible Drug

Policy’s (SSDP) base and increasing

engagement with presently underrepre-

sented perspectives.

Since its founding in March 2011, ORD

has taken on the challenges of strength-

ening diversity in all its forms within

SSDP. The committee endeavors to en-

sure that the range of perspectives and

personal experiences of all communities

and individuals negatively impacted in

the War on Drugs are represented and

integrated into SSDP and the drug policy

reform movement at large. ORD does

this by creating a welcoming, open, and

safe space for all stakeholders.

Resources & Further Information

ORD offers consultants for your chapter

and your events, scholarships to attend

SSDP national and regional SSDP confer-

ences as well as other drug policy and

intersectional conferences, and valuable

experience working on diversity and

outreach in SSDP as part of a dedicated

team.

Check us out and donate online at ssdp.

org/diversity, and join our conversation

on Facebook at http://bit.ly/ssdp-ord

ORD at SSDP Conference 2014

Congratulations to the 2014 SSDP ORD

conference scholarship recipients:

Crystal Brunt, Ryan Byrd, Stephanie

Izquieta, Margarita McAuliffe, Roman

Rivera, Sara Arnold, Tanner Taylor

Frederick Marcel Williams III, Melissa

Clink, Vivian Perea, Chauncey Scales

All are welcome to join committee mem-

bers, ORD scholarship recipients, and

others Saturday evening for dinner, net-

working and an open conversation about

outreach to underrepresented stakehold-

ers and ORD’s role in facilitating diver-

sity. See Event Schedule for details.

OUTREACH RECRUITMENT AND DIVERSITY

SPONSORS

Senior Sponsor Ideal420.com

Junior Sponsors Berkeley Patient Group, Freedom Leaf, Greenbridge Corporate Counsel, Students for Liberty

Sophomore Sponsors Arcview Group, Harborside Health Center, Marijuana Policy Project, Vicente Sederberg

Freshman Sponsors Americans for Safe Access, Charles Koche Institute, Drug Policy Alliance, FIRE, Harm Reduction Coalition

LEAP, MAPS, NORML, Open Society Foundations, Reason

Students for SensibleDrug Policy

1011 O Street NW #1, Washington, DC 20001

ssdp@ssdp.org (202) 393-5280 ssdp.org