By Jonathan Perri SSDP Students for Sensible Drug Policy has been busy in the past year, hiring a new Executive Director, hosting conferences across the country, and running dozens of campaigns at all levels of government.

Aaron Houston was just hired as Executive Director. He brings with him years of drug policy reform experience, most recently as Marijuana Policy Project’s Director of Governmental Relations.

While at MPP, Houston was instrumen- tal in getting the US Dept. of Justice memo written that told DEA to not interfere with cannabis patients and dispensaries that comply with state laws. He can help SSDP become more active in federal lobbying, and increase the push for repealing the Aid Elimination Penalty.

The SSDP has over 160 chapters nation- wide representing almost every state, with up to 200 expected by the year’s end. Dozens of chapters are working on `Campus Change’ campaigns to reform their drug policies. The majority

Read More: Student organizers focus on `campus change’

Drug War supporter and family values proponent Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) resigned from his seat in Congress May 18 as he confessed to an affair with a female staffer with whom he made a video touting sex-abstinence education. Best known as the author of the HEA Aid Elimination Penalty, his bill denies financial aid and grants to students with any drug conviction on their records no matter how minor, but it does not apply to violent crimes like rape. Over 200,000 students have been affected by this law, which motivated student activism and led to the formation of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

As chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources from 2001 to 2007, Souder had oversight of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and he played a major role in defeating medical marijuana reform legislation in Congress.

Joseph Casias was fired from his position at Wal Mart in Battle Creek, MI for using a med- icines recommended by his physician. Michigan allows patients to use cannabis legally. Casias has an inoperable brain tumor and sinus cancer for which he uses cannabis for relief. He was a model employee, and “Associate of the Year” in 2008. The store manage- ment detected cannabis in his system after he suffered a knee injury while on the job and was drug tested as a result. “The manager told me he was sorry and he had no choice. He said he wished he could help me out,” Casias said. “They went and got my personal belongings, and I walked out of the store.”Dan Korobkin, a lawyer with the ACLU in Michigan stated, “Wal-Mart is sending a shameful message that people who become ill and have chronic pain have to chose between their

Read More: Wal-Mart fires cancer patient, honored worker for legal urine

Berlin, Germany’s top health official, Katrin Lompscher, who is in charge of defining “small amounts” under state law, told Der Spiegel Magazine that she intends to raise the current amount of marijuana or hashish that a person can legally possess from 10 to 15 grams. Most other German states consider 6 grams to be the limit. Other European coun- tries that tolerate simple pot possession are Belgium (3 grams), the Czech Republic (20 joints), and the Netherlands (5 grams).

By Phillip Smith

Editor, Drug War Chronicle, www.stopthedrugwar.org

Possession of up to 15 grams of marijuana or up to five plants (and up to 40 entheogenic mushrooms) is no longer a punishable offense in the Czech Republic since the beginning of the year. The limits were announced in December after the cabinet decided to change policy.

Possession of amounts greater than ‘small amounts,’ but less than those assumed to indicate trafficking, will result in prison sentences of up to one year for cannabis and to two years for other drugs.

According to the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction‘s latest annual report, Czechs are among Europe’s leading cannabis smokers.

Among young Czechs (age 16 to 34), 22 percent toke up at least once a year. The European average was 16 percent.