War on Drugs Kills

I know this is kind of old news, but this story needs to continue to be circulated. And that is the story of Rachel Hoffman.

Rachel Hoffman is dead now, because she acted as an informant for the Tallahassee police. Basically, the police arrested Rachel for possession of marijuana and ecstasy after raiding her apartment. They then threatened her with prison time, but offered to drop the charges if she became an informant for them. She agreed to do it, even though she did not have a lawyer present at the time.

Excellent write up at The Agitator, by Radley Balko, one of my favorite bloggers. Original story

SSDP@SDSU Protest and Good Samaritan Policies

“On Tuesday morning, San Diego State University student Randy Hencken [founder of SDSU SSDP] woke up, checked his email, saw that 75 of his fellow students had just been arrested in a massive drug bust, and realized that a national news story had just landed on his doorstep. So he rolled up his sleeves, grabbed his cell phone, and got to work. Read the rest of this entry »

SSDP@UH Update

I know it doesn’t seem like SSDP@UH has been doing a lot this semester, but it’s all happening behind the scenes right now.

I have been working on getting as much information as I can about the UH Drug and Alcohol Abuse Policy and should have everything I need by next week. Then we can start figuring out what the best way is to get changes to the policy implemented. I will give everyone more details as things move along a little more. It depends on how we plan on advocating for the changes on whether or not I need obvious member support. Read the rest of this entry »

Inmate Social Networking

So I was reading a post that Radley wrote over at The Agitator about the Colomb Family. And I noticed something in particular that really worried me.

Inmates were selling one another photos, case facts, and even grand jury testimony about pending cases, then calling up federal prosecutors offering to testify in exchange for time off of their own drug sentences. “Hey, Mr. Prosecutor, I sold that family drugs, too! What can you give me?

Read the rest of this entry »

NY Gov. Paterson and Drugs

I came across this article today, and it honestly made me smile. Governor Paterson, from NY, admitted to using cocaine in his 20’s, and marijuana when he was younger. This man has quite the honest streak going on, and I think it’s doing a lot of good. I think his latest confession is representative of changing beliefs in the US. Here’s a good quote from him:

“More Americans have tried a lot more during that period of time [70's] and gone on to lead responsible lives and hopefully have lived their lives to their fullest,” he said.

Exactly. Read the rest of this entry »