Chapter History
Just after midnight, October 1st, 2001, Morgan Lesko and a friend were arrested for a joint behind the Campus Recreation Center. Not able to find a NORML chapter on our campus, he decided to start one up (again). According to early mentor, Chris Evans, there was some form of drug policy reform organization a few years earlier, which had dissipated. The first meeting called was under the name 'TORML', Terrapins for the Reform of Maryland Laws, but an attendee at the first meeting convinced us not to limit ourselves to fighting marijuana laws, since our policies towards the harder drugs are also failing and creating far more harm than good.
With that, he founded the Maryland chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy in the fall of 2001. Even though we did a petition geared towards changing the dorm policies, most of our early efforts were all about educating our campus both on the harms of the drug war and on harm reduction. After the first year or so, Martin Baer and others took over leadership of the organization. However, by the spring of 2003, our chapter was thinning with little progress, graduating active members, and feeling the loud liberal reaction to the appalling war abroad.
After two years dedicated to the campus chapter, Morgan began interning and volunteering with the Drug Reform Coordination Network (www.stopthedrugwar.org) working primarily on the Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform effort. DRCNet shares an office suite with the national SSDP office and Flex Your Rights (www.flexyourrights.org). During the summer of 2004, SSDP asked if the University of Maryland chapter would be willing to host of annual national conference on our campus. Despite a nearly extinct chapter with only about five members, we decided to host the conference. Though we could not convince that many Maryland students to join us for the conference, people definitely noticed when the drug policy reform movement came to town.
Since then, the University of Maryland SSDP chapter has been steadily growing, largely due to increased popularity among the incoming freshmen in 2005 and 2006. After we hosted the national conference in November of 2004, we maintained a heavy campus presence and felt a distinct difference in the incoming classes during their orientation tours. Since we were around campus so much, we ended up interacting with countless tour groups of perspective students' families. We met so many incoming students who were very excited to see us on campus, and even parent would typically receive us very well.
In 2004-2005, lead by Damien Nichols and by Anastacia Cosner from 2005-2008, SSDP did a second dorm rights petition that we ended up not really using. But after collecting a couple thousand signatures for that petition, we had gained enough support that our Marijuana-Alcohol Equalization Referendum on the SGA ballot passed by a student vote by 65%!
From 2009-2010, Irina Alexander served as our fearless leader, continuing Cosner's mission of implementing a Good Samaritan (Medical Amnesty) Policy at UMD, since at the time, only a flexible and insufficient "protocol" was in place to protect students' health in the event of an emergency overdose situation. Alexander also worked to provide new perspectives on the Drug War by organizing numerous panels, debates, and other events on topics such as drugs and sex work, harm reduction, economic impacts, and women working in drug policy reform.
Brandon Levey was president from 2010-2011, and made it his goal to further push UMD to adopt the Good Samaritan Policy. Levey drafted the proposal and reached out to university officials to persuade them of the need for a true medical amnesty policy rather than the arbitrary one that was in place. Thanks to his effort and the work of countless other past and current chapter members over the course of several years, the University Senate approved an alcohol-only GSP in March of 2011. It was a great first step, but our chapter didn't give up there - we wanted a comprehensive policy that would include circumstances such as the one that led to the tragic death of UMD student and basketball star Len Bias in 1986.
From 2011-2012, Lauren Mendelsohn, previously the president of UMD's chapter of NORML, acted as president of this chapter. Mendelsohn worked to strengthen bonds between SSDP and the community by co-hosting events with other student organizations, helping organize a local music and camping festival (Domefest), and spearheading UMD's "Safe Rave" events.
In 2012, Mikayla Hellwich became president of UMD SSDP. Hellwich reinvigorated the movement to extend the Good Samaritan Policy to include all drugs, and in February of 2013, the University Senate approved the new policy in a nearly unanimous vote. UMD SSDP alum Brandon Levey and UMD SSDP Treasurer Crystal Varkalis made speeches addressing the audience before the vote, and UMD SSDP alum Stacia Cosner - the gal who got this whole ball rolling back during her days as a Terp (and now serves as Deputy Director for SSDP) - was in attendance for this momentous event in UMD SSDP history.
Nico Orduz served as president from 2013-2014, and was followed by Olivia O'Keefe, whose first task as president was to revamp this Weebly page.
With that, he founded the Maryland chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy in the fall of 2001. Even though we did a petition geared towards changing the dorm policies, most of our early efforts were all about educating our campus both on the harms of the drug war and on harm reduction. After the first year or so, Martin Baer and others took over leadership of the organization. However, by the spring of 2003, our chapter was thinning with little progress, graduating active members, and feeling the loud liberal reaction to the appalling war abroad.
After two years dedicated to the campus chapter, Morgan began interning and volunteering with the Drug Reform Coordination Network (www.stopthedrugwar.org) working primarily on the Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform effort. DRCNet shares an office suite with the national SSDP office and Flex Your Rights (www.flexyourrights.org). During the summer of 2004, SSDP asked if the University of Maryland chapter would be willing to host of annual national conference on our campus. Despite a nearly extinct chapter with only about five members, we decided to host the conference. Though we could not convince that many Maryland students to join us for the conference, people definitely noticed when the drug policy reform movement came to town.
Since then, the University of Maryland SSDP chapter has been steadily growing, largely due to increased popularity among the incoming freshmen in 2005 and 2006. After we hosted the national conference in November of 2004, we maintained a heavy campus presence and felt a distinct difference in the incoming classes during their orientation tours. Since we were around campus so much, we ended up interacting with countless tour groups of perspective students' families. We met so many incoming students who were very excited to see us on campus, and even parent would typically receive us very well.
In 2004-2005, lead by Damien Nichols and by Anastacia Cosner from 2005-2008, SSDP did a second dorm rights petition that we ended up not really using. But after collecting a couple thousand signatures for that petition, we had gained enough support that our Marijuana-Alcohol Equalization Referendum on the SGA ballot passed by a student vote by 65%!
From 2009-2010, Irina Alexander served as our fearless leader, continuing Cosner's mission of implementing a Good Samaritan (Medical Amnesty) Policy at UMD, since at the time, only a flexible and insufficient "protocol" was in place to protect students' health in the event of an emergency overdose situation. Alexander also worked to provide new perspectives on the Drug War by organizing numerous panels, debates, and other events on topics such as drugs and sex work, harm reduction, economic impacts, and women working in drug policy reform.
Brandon Levey was president from 2010-2011, and made it his goal to further push UMD to adopt the Good Samaritan Policy. Levey drafted the proposal and reached out to university officials to persuade them of the need for a true medical amnesty policy rather than the arbitrary one that was in place. Thanks to his effort and the work of countless other past and current chapter members over the course of several years, the University Senate approved an alcohol-only GSP in March of 2011. It was a great first step, but our chapter didn't give up there - we wanted a comprehensive policy that would include circumstances such as the one that led to the tragic death of UMD student and basketball star Len Bias in 1986.
From 2011-2012, Lauren Mendelsohn, previously the president of UMD's chapter of NORML, acted as president of this chapter. Mendelsohn worked to strengthen bonds between SSDP and the community by co-hosting events with other student organizations, helping organize a local music and camping festival (Domefest), and spearheading UMD's "Safe Rave" events.
In 2012, Mikayla Hellwich became president of UMD SSDP. Hellwich reinvigorated the movement to extend the Good Samaritan Policy to include all drugs, and in February of 2013, the University Senate approved the new policy in a nearly unanimous vote. UMD SSDP alum Brandon Levey and UMD SSDP Treasurer Crystal Varkalis made speeches addressing the audience before the vote, and UMD SSDP alum Stacia Cosner - the gal who got this whole ball rolling back during her days as a Terp (and now serves as Deputy Director for SSDP) - was in attendance for this momentous event in UMD SSDP history.
Nico Orduz served as president from 2013-2014, and was followed by Olivia O'Keefe, whose first task as president was to revamp this Weebly page.