For some strange reason I have been present at the creation of a number of very different organizations over the years, most memorably the founding of Young Americans for Freedom in 1960, NORML’s First People’s Pot Conference in 1972, and even before the beginning of the Drug Policy Foundation in the mid 1980s.

However, I have never been so impressed with a group of people and the prospects for an organization as I was this weekend at the first conference of the Students For Sensible Drug Policy -- SSDP – www.ssdp.org held here at George Washington University.

More than 250 students from more than two dozen campuses attended. The fact that the average age was probably 20 years made it all the more impressive and encouraging for the future.

I was definitely the odd man out, being older than most of their fathers, but that made it all the more fun. And to top it all off, I got to meet several readers of Marijuananews, and – I hope – to encourage a number of new ones.

I was there because, when SSDP’s Adam Smith first told me what he was going to try to do, I said that I thought that it was a great idea and that I would try to attend. I am very glad that I was able to go, because the conference was successful beyond anyone’s wildest hopes.

I think that it would be difficult to overstate the strategic importance of what can and should grow out of this gathering. This is the beginning of a major anti-prohibitionist movement on the campuses, without which we can never hope to succeed in freeing the country from the prohibitionist police state.

Although there has long been a number of NORML chapters around the country, and I was very pleased to see that there were several represented here, NORML has never had the resources to properly develop a campus network.

SSDP will not be a substitute for NORML campus chapters in dealing with cannabis related issues, but we will see NORML and SSDP chapters overlapping and working together, along with other libertarian and progressive groups.

Of course, NORML also has to deal with the consequences of decades of the vilification of people even suspected of marijuana use. The SSDP comes without any such baggage, and can more easily do what the prohibitionists fear most of all – demand an open and honest discussion of the "drug policies."

To give you some idea of how badly the prohibitionists fear any discussion of the issues, the Drug Czar’s office backed out on a commitment to have someone debate at the conference.

As SSDP’s Kris Lotlikar said, the ONDCP would not send even one of their huge staff a few blocks to explain DEAland drugs policies to over 200 student leaders from around the country. This shows a complete lack of what the Declaration of Independence called "a decent respect for the opinions of mankind."

Or perhaps they just lacked the guts to get up and lie to people who would know that they were being lied to, and -- unlike the media -- would actually challenge the lies.

This is a generation that is more than a little accustomed to being lied to – and more than a little tired of it.

Although there were to be many memorable moments, the event that suggested to headline for this report occurred as Kris Lotlikar was opening the conference and asked the audience for a show of hands on how many of those present had been through the DARE program.

Almost all of the hands went up.

It really should not have been a surprise to me, but it perfectly set the tone for the conference. The students of this country know that they have been lied to – are being lied to – and they are fed up and aren’t going to take it anymore.

One of the recurring themes of the conference was the derision of the prohibitionist claim that the purpose of prohibition is to "protect the children." This was generation that was to be "protected" and they know that it was all a lie.