2012, Here We Come!

SCHOOLS, NOT PRISONS!

The year of 2011 has been a good one for SSDP, especially for Oregon! There are now chapters in six universities in the state: University of Oregon, Reed College, Portland State University, Lewis & Clark College, Lewis & Clark Law School, and Western Oregon University! We are working towards making 2012 even more awesome. There are several ballot initiatives going around to end cannabis prohibition on one level or another, and I know many of us are involved in helping for the coming election. With this in mind, it's time to prepare for an eventful new year, and this Winter break seems like a good time to get a head start.

The key is to coordinate our efforts, catalyze the exchange of ideas, and facilitate communication between the different chapters, as well as with the general public. To make this happen, we now have several resources available for all chapters to use: an Oregon SSDP website, an Oregon SSDP forum, and this blog you are currently reading.

I strongly encourage everyone interested to sign up on the forum. With a few regulars from each chapter, the communications will flow abundantly and we can stay involved in each others' projects. A good forum requires little effort, multiplies our brainstorming abilities, and enables us to get to know each other. Sooner or later, a live chat will be added.

As for the website, it is a incredibly useful resource to host your content for free. Don't hesitate to send me your content, or take a look at the pages for the Portland State chapter for inspiration. I'm gradually adding content to the "Resources" page, which would help us regroup relevant documents, pictures, videos, etc... Eventually a domain name will be purchased, perhaps something like OregonSSDP.org.

Finally, the blog is your best place to rant about drug policy, talk about what your chapter is doing, and cover important stories as they come out. A few enthusiastic writers (one from each chapter, ideally) would be enough to keep it going, and I seriously doubt we'll run out of topics to cover.

With these new resources, I'm hoping all Oregon chapters can interconnect and collaborate in the hopes of making a strong comeback after the break. I want to hear what you have to say, so free free to comment and/or contact me at any point. This is merely the first of (hopefully) many more blog posts, and I'm very excited to see what we can accomplish together in 2012!