Youth Revolt Against the Drug War

Great Moments in Weed History

David Bienenstock

Tv & Film, Comedy, History

4.8 • 659 Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2021

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the 1990s, a new federal law banning any student with a drug conviction from receiving financial aid led to the formation of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). Created online by a swarm of young activists in the early days of the internet, the organization quickly grew into the largest student organization in the United States. Today SSDP has over 5,000 active members on 300 college campuses around the world, all of them dedicated to advocating for the legalization of cannabis and the end of the War on Drugs. To hear the antiestablishment history of this game-changing organization, Abdullah and Bean sit down with founding member Kris Krane, who has also served as SSDP's Executive Director. SUPPORT "GREAT MOMENTS IN WEED HISTORY" ON PATREON Sign up for our Great Moments in Weed History Patreon for special bonuses and fun surprises PLEASE VISIT OUR SPONSORS! This episode is brought to you by Tweedle Farms, Northwest Oregon's premier, family owned hemp farm, specializing in farm-to-table, terpene rich, high CBD hemp flower, concentrates, vapes, edibles and topicals. Use promo code “greatmoments” for 20% off your next order shipped anywhere in the United States.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, how's it going, folks? It's Abdullah and Bean. And welcome back for another episode of
0:06.3	great moments in weed history. On today's episode, we're celebrating an organization
0:13.6	that has been really instrumental in getting young minds involved in the cause of cannabis
0:20.2	liberalization. Yeah, SSDP, Students for Sensible
0:23.9	Drug Policies is a national and even international organization. And as you said, it is specifically
0:31.3	focused on organizing young people to fight back against the war on drugs to push for the legalization of cannabis.
0:39.9	You know, we talk often as we should about how this war on drugs disproportionately targets
0:46.0	people of color, people with less money, and young people.
0:51.8	Yeah, absolutely. And that is why student activism is so important. Being,
0:57.1	you and I have talked a lot on this show that despite the fact that neither of us is a spring
1:03.2	chicken any longer, we still carry with us that idealism, that fire in our bellies that makes
1:10.4	you feel like there's this injustice out there
1:12.7	and we just have to do something about it. And Students for Sensible Drug Policy is an organization
1:18.7	that really lights that fire in a lot of ways and in a lot of people. You know, the way that I
1:24.3	became interested in cannabis activism was through normal was through reading
1:29.0	stuff from normal and sort of you know and from you being in stock and you know like really getting a
1:35.2	sense for how we can take action to fight for this plant that we love right because really it just
1:42.1	does not sit well that there's so many people who don't have access to it when they need it for medical purposes.
1:47.7	There's so many people in jail for it when they just were cultivating it or selling it to make a living.
1:53.8	So truly big ups to SSDP.
1:57.7	Yeah. And when we look at that specific organization and the reasons that it formed and we're going to talk to one of the founders of SSDP in this episode, it was because of rules that specifically disenfranchised young people from accessing student aid if you had a drug conviction.
2:17.7	And so we see this pattern that we talk about a lot on this show.
	...

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