Pubdate: Mon, 18 Apr 2011
Source: Brown Daily Herald, The (Brown, RI Edu)
Copyright: 2011 The Brown Daily Herald
Contact: http://www.browndailyherald.com/contact/letters
Website: http://www.browndailyherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/727
Author: Jared Moffat

SSDP DOES NOT ENDORSE DRUG USE

To the Editor:

In an April 14 front-page story ("Hold the foam: passing on Spring 
Weekend," April 14), an event sponsored by Students for Sensible Drug 
Policy was used as evidence that campus gets wild and crazy during 
Spring Weekend. The following is a clarification of our mission, 
because the representation of our group was far from positive.

I want to clarify on behalf of Students for Sensible Drug Policy that 
we in no way endorse or romanticize drug use. Our mission as a 
grassroots student organization is to change the wrongheaded drug 
policies, as well as the culture of abuse, that permeate our society. 
The Herald article attempted to use an SSDP-sponsored event - the 
lending out of an ecstasy testing chemical kit - as evidence of how 
crazy things get at Brown during Spring Weekend.

Our event was grossly misappropriated in the article. A quote from 
our Facebook event page was taken completely out of context, and we 
want to explicitly reject any association of reckless or 
irresponsible behavior with our goals and missions as a student 
group. We are providing an information service. However regrettable 
the fact may be for some, Brown students will consume unidentified 
pills and powders they bought from strangers. The purpose of our 
service is to enable students to know what they are consuming so they 
can make an educated decision instead of a blind guess.

So counter to what one might think from reading the article, our role 
is not to praise inherently risky drug use. Rather, we aim to create 
an anonymous, non-judgmental space where students can become more 
informed before making a potentially lethal decision.

Jared Moffat '13

Students for Sensible Drug Policy president
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom