POT TV – Canadian Students For Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) will be hosting its 7th Annual National Conference, “A Rising Revolution: Drug Policy Reform Around the Globe,” from Friday, February 27 to Sunday, March 1, 2015 in Toronto, Canada. The CSSDP Annual National Conference is the only national drug policy conference in Canada. In conjunction with the Toronto CSSDP Chapter, this interdisciplinary event will provide a platform for youth, students, researchers, service providers, people who use drugs, and allies to share ideas, exchange knowledge, and organize for future actions. A Rising Revolution will discuss alternatives to prohibition including decriminalization, legalization, and regulation. There will also be a focus on evidence-based public health solutions, such as pragmatic harm reduction and treatment approaches. Some topics that will be covered during the conference include global drug policy reform, the international drug control regime (including the upcoming United Nation Special Session on Drugs in 2016), cannabis legalization and medicinal use, nightlife harm reduction, and studies of the use of psychedelic drugs in medicine.
7th Annual National CSSDP Conference: “A Rising Revolution: Drug Policy Reform Around the Globe” CSSDP is a national grassroots network of student and youth chapters that are working on drug policy issues facing their communities. http://cssdp.org
Friday
12:00 PM-1:30 PM Harm Reduction Tour
South Riverdale Community Health Centre (955 Queen Street East)
Hosted by the COUNTERfit Harm Reduction Program
Vegetarian Lunch Included
12:00 PM-1:30 PM Harm Reduction Tour ** SOLD OUT**
Central Toronto Community Health Centre (168 Baturst Street)
Hosted by the Queen West Harm Reduction Program
2:00 PM-6:00 PM Cannabus Tour
Explore Toronto’s tantalizing cannabis culture with its most colorful commentators Amy Anonymous and Matt Mernagh. Tour participants will celebrate and engage in Toronto’s rich, but somewhat forgotten history and lore. Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy registrants will create another page in Toronto’s cannabis culture with advocates Marc Emery, Jodie Emery and Dana Larsen onboard. In case you can’t turn up live, tune in and watch what happens as The Mernahuana Zone producer Chris Goodwin will demonstrate his marijuana media activism by webcasting the event.
5:00 PM-6:00 PM Registration
6:00 PM-8:00 PM Public Health Approaches to Drug Policy
Canadian Drug Policy Coalition National Dialogue
Moderator: Nazlee Maghsoudi, Chair, Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy
Susan Shepherd, Manager, Toronto Drug Strategy Secretariat
Donald MacPherson, Executive Director, Canadian Drug Policy Coalition
Denise Baldwin, IDU Outreach Worker, Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy
Dan Werb, PhD, Director, International Centre for Science in Drug Policy
Bernard Le Foll, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto
Respondent: Dr. Carl Hart, Columbia University
8:00 PM Conference Opening Party
Location: Madison Ave Pub, 14 Madison Ave.
Reservation under ‘CSSDP’
Saturday
8:00 AM Registration Opens
8:00 AM – 9:00 AM Breakfast
9:00 AM Welcome & Opening Remarks
9:40 AM – 11:00 AM Keynote: Dr. Carl Hart
CSSDP is pleased to welcome our opening keynote, neuroscientist Dr. Carl Hart, an associate professor in the psychology and psychiatry departments from Columbia University. His recent book, titled “High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society”, interweaves anecdotes from Hart’s own experience with drugs and poverty with his modern research. He is also a member of the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse, a research scientist in the Division of Substance Abuse at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and was also the first tenured African-American professor at Columbia.
11:00 AM – 11:10 AM Break
11:10 AM – 12:30 PM Drug Policy at the United Nations
United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) Panel
Hosted by Open Society Foundations
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM Lunch
12:45-1:30 PM Lunch and Learn NationBuilder & Canadian Drug Policy Coalition
1:30 PM – 2:50 PM Breakout Sessions
Plenary Room: International Nightlife Harm Reduction Panel
Room 1: Racism and the War on Drugs
Room 2: Emerging Trends in Drug Use and Treatment
Hosted by Canadian Harm Reduction Network
3:00 PM – 4:20 PM Breakout Sessions
Plenary Room: Youth Movements Leading International Drug Policy Reform
Hosted by the Students for Sensible Drug Policy International Organizing Committee
Room 1: Medical Cannabis in Canada “Licensed Producers, Dispensaries, and Home growing: Future Possibilities in Patient Access and Care”
Room 2: John Howard Society “Facing Criminalization: The Development of Peer Support for People Who Use Drugs”
4:30 PM – 5:50 PM Breakout Sessions
Plenary Room: Worker Forum: Barriers, Solutions, and Next Steps in Harm Reduction
Room 1: Responding to Drug Related Emergencies
Room 2: Strategic Litigation
6:30 – 7:30 Annual General Meeting
Frustrated with Canadian and international drug policies? Want to do something about it? Well, you’re in luck! CSSDP will be electing at least three new members to the Board of Directors at the next Annual General Meeting (AGM), taking place during the 7th Annual National CSSDP Conference. As a member of the Board of Directors, you will be responsible for furthering CSSDP’s objectives at the national level. You will have the opportunity to do really amazing and cool things, like representing CSSDP at conferences, making presentations on behalf of CSSDP to members of the government, attending drug meetings at the UN, and much more! The AGM will occur on Saturday, February 28 from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM.
8 PM Film Screening of “The Culture High”
Free with Conference Admission, $5 to General Public
Hosted by NORML Canada
Join CSSDP in partnership with NORML Canada at one of the first Toronto screenings of ‘The Culture High’, a documentary which examines the present cannabis debates surrounding legalization. The highly anticipated sequel to “The Union: The Business Behind Getting High” includes appearances from Richard Branson, Snoop Dogg, Lester Grinspoon, Joe Rogan and Gabor Mate, analyzing the motives and arguments of both sides of the legalization discussion. This screening will take place in Sidney Smith Hall at the University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street. Thank you to NORML Canada for hosting this exciting event!
10:00 PM Conference Reception
Location: Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Ave, 1st floor
Directions: Walk out to Spadina Ave from Sidney Smith Hall, take TTC streetcar 10 minutes down Spadina, exit at Sullivan Street.
Join us for some appetizers and refreshments at the Centre for Social Innovation. Check out the rooftop for a beautiful view of downtown Toronto! Let’s celebrate the future of drug policy together.
Sunday
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM Breakfast
9:30 AM – 11:00 AM #RisingRevolution Talks
Featuring Donna May, Brian O’Dea & others TBC
11:00 AM – 11:10 AM Break
11:10 AM – 12:30 PM Keynote: Marc Emery
CSSDP is pleased to welcome the “Prince of Pot”, Marc Emery, who is a well-known cannabis activist, entrepreneur and politician from British Columbia. In 2009, Emery served a five year sentence in a US federal prison for selling mail order cannabis seed into the US. Emery also founded Cannabis Culture, a magazine focused on cannabis and hemp around the world, and the famous Cannabis Culture Headquarters, as well as Hemp BC and the Cannabis Cafe (now the BC Marijuana Party Bookstore and the New Amsterdam Cafe).
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM Lunch & Regional Chapter Networking
1:30 PM – 2:50 PM Breakout Sessions
Plenary Room: Voting for Legalization
Room 1: New Psychoactive Substances
Room 2: Gender, Sexuality and Harm Reduction
3:00 PM – 4:20 PM Breakout Sessions
Plenary Room: Advancing Harm Reduction in Prison: Making the Case for Prison-Based Needle and Syringe Programs
Room 1: Legalizing Coca: Roundtable Discussion
Room 2: Drug Checking
4:30 – 6:00 PM Mapping the Future of Canadian Drug Policy
Cofacilitated by CSSDP and CDPC
Platinum Sponsors:
Open Society Foundations – Drug Policy Alliance – Canadian Drug Policy Coalition – Sensible BC – Crop King Seeds – Gold Sponsor: – Norml Canada – Silver Sponsor: BudBuddy.biz – Matt Mernagh – Bronze Sponsors: Munk School of Global Affairs – Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) – ATU LOCAL 113 – somer Design – Department of Sociology, University of Toronto – CannDo – Vapor Central – Hot Box Cafe – Media Sponsor: Lift
Video source Pot TV livestream by Vapor Central
