Students for Sensible Drug Policy to Conduct Midwest Regional Conference at ISU

The Midwest Regional Conference for Students for Sensible Drug Policy will take place at Illinois State University from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 19.  

The events, scheduled in Schroeder Hall room 130, will include speakers, short films from law enforcement officers and clergy speaking out against the war on drugs.  All the events are free and open to the public, and there will be free materials and information available.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) is an international grassroots network of students who are concerned about the impact drug abuse has on our communities, but who also know that the War on Drugs is failing our generation and our society.  SSDP mobilizes and empowers young people to participate in the political process, pushing for sensible policies to achieve a safer and more just future, while fighting back against counterproductive drug war policies, particularly those that directly harm students and youth.

Among the speakers will be James Gierach of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.  He is a practicing attorney in Illinois and former Chicago prosecutor in the 1970s who went after drug users; Mary Price, general counsel, Families Against Mandatory Minimums; Kathleen Kane-Willis, interim director of the Roosevelt University Institute for Metropolitan Affairs, and lead author/researcher of “Intersecting Voices: Impacts of Illinois' Drug Policies” and co- author of “Through a Different Lens: Shifting the Focus on Illinois Drug Policy.”

Other speakers include Julie Falco, who has lived with multiple sclerosis for 22 years.  She is a passionate speaker for medical cannabis and a member of the Board of Directors of Illinois NORML; drug policy activist Ben Masel, a political activist and advocate for industrial hemp who is running for Senate in Wisconsin; Amber Langston, outreach director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Washington, D.C.; and Pete Guither, author of DrugWarRant.com and faculty advisor of Illinois State University’s chapter of SSDP.