The Drug Policy Alliance Network and its partner organization, the Drug Policy Alliance, educate Americans and others about alternatives to current drug policies on issues ranging from marijuana and adolescent drug use to illicit drug dependence, the spread of infectious diseases, policing drug markets and alternatives to incarceration.

The following are some of our recent triumphs:

• DPA Creates Statewide Methamphetamine Education Program in New Mexico
• Connecticut Becomes Second State to Address Racial Impact of Drug Laws
• Syringe Access Makes Strides in Los Angeles
• New Mexico Becomes Twelfth Medical Marijuana State
• DPA Stirs International Debate with Magazine Cover Article
• New Jersey Saves Lives With Syringe Access
• DPA Promotes Policy Change Through Grants Program
• DPA Defends Treatment
• DPA Launches Drug Education Project

For more on our recent work, read our 2008 Annual Report.

DPA Creates Statewide Methamphetamine Education Program in New Mexico

Backed by a federal grant awarded in early 2007, DPA New Mexico is creating a statewide methamphetamine education program focused on teens. In addition to a statewide conference and regional trainings for teachers, parents, and prevention specialists, the project has produced an educational DVD designed by and for youth. The program, DPA's first federally funded effort, focuses on credible, science-based information rather than ineffective, overly simplistic scare tactics.

October 1, 2008: DPA releases Just4Teens: Let’s Talk about Meth and Other Drugs, an innovative drug education DVD for educators.
 
October 30-31, 2007: DPA New Mexico and partners host a state-wide conference, “Building Positive Communities: A Public Health Approach to Teen Methamphetamine Prevention.”

January 2007: DPA is awarded a federal grant to create a New Mexico methamphetamine prevention campaign.

Connecticut Becomes Second State to Address Racial Impact of Drug Laws

Thanks to work by DPA and its local partner in Connecticut, A Better Way Foundation, Connecticut became only the second state to require assessment of how proposed criminal justice legislation will impact communities of color and ethnic minorities. The new law is intended to reduce unwarranted racial disparities in the criminal justice system, such as the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity that existed in the state until 2005.

June 5, 2008: Governor Jodi M. Rell signs HB 5933, the racial impact assessment bill, into law.

Syringe Access Makes Strides in Los Angeles

In Los Angeles County, DPA is leading implementation of the Disease Prevention Demonstration Project (DPDP), a program to make clean syringes available for purchase in pharmacies. The program has enrolled approximately 300 pharmacies since February 2007. Increasing access to sterile syringes is a proven way to reduce the spread of blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis C.

November 21, 2008: DPA’s harm reduction coordinator presents on the DPDP at the Sixth Annual Hepatitis C Summit in Los Angeles.

February 2008: DPA organizes the Los Angeles Pharmacists Summit on Viral Diseases and Their Prevention, a first-of-its-kind event for health care professionals about the role of sterile syringes and harm reduction practices in reducing the transmission of disease.

February 2007: The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health implements the Disease Prevention Demonstration Project.

New Mexico Becomes Twelfth Medical Marijuana State

DPA New Mexico advocated tirelessly to pass the state's medical marijuana law in 2007. Now, DPA New Mexico is monitoring the law's implementation and encouraging the establishment of a state licensed production and distribution system to provide qualified patients with a safe and secure supply of medical cannabis.
 
September 8, 2008: DPA New Mexico provides detailed recommendations to the Department of Health on the rules and regulations governing the program, particularly the statewide production and distribution system. 
 
April 2, 2007: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson signs the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act into law.

DPA Stirs International Debate with Magazine Cover Article

Foreign Policy, a highly influential international magazine of global politics, economics, and ideas, put an article by Ethan Nadelmann, DPA executive director, on the cover of its September/October 2007 issue. The article inspired discussions of drug policy in a number of high-profile media outlets, including National Public Radio and FOX News.

August 28, 2007: The September/October 2007 issue of Foreign Policy hits newsstands. The cover reads: "Legalize It: Why it's time to just say no to Prohibition."

New Jersey Saves Lives With Syringe Access

After four years of work by the Drug Policy Alliance Network in New Jersey, the state passed a law that permits the creation of pilot syringe exchange programs in six cities. Four cities have applied and been approved to start programs. This marks the end of New Jersey’s distinction as the last state in the U.S. to deny any form of sterile syringe access to control the spread of disease.

November 27, 2007: Atlantic City launches the state’s first legal syringe access program.

December 19, 2006: New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine signs a syringe exchange bill into law.

DPA Defends Treatment

DPA's office of legal affairs successfully defended Proposition 36, California's groundbreaking treatment-instead-of-incarceration law, from fundamental changes that would have allowed people in treatment to be locked up. DPA, the California Society of Addiction Medicine, and Cliff Gardner, co-author of Prop. 36, challenged the changes in a lawsuit.

May 2008: A California Superior Court rules that SB 1137, a bill signed into law by Gov. Schwarzenegger to change Prop. 36, is unconstitutional.

DPA Promotes Policy Change Through Grants Program

A grant-making program administered by DPA awarded grants to 41 groups working to raise awareness about the negative consequences of and alternatives to current drug policies at the local, state and national level.

September 2008: The Promoting Policy Change Grants Program distributes $1.2 million in grants to 41 groups.

DPA Launches Drug Education Project

We launched the Beyond Zero Tolerance project for reality-based drug education in high schools with a booklet written by Rodney Skager, Ph.D. This was followed by the first ever Beyond Zero Tolerance conference, which brought together experts in the fields of drug abuse prevention and education, offering participants realistic, pragmatic, and cost-effective strategies for implementing effective drug education and disciplinary practices in secondary schools. DPA's San Francisco office, under the direction of Marsha Rosenbaum, collaborated with Dr. Skager to formulate the California Statewide Task Force for Effective Drug Education. Beyond Zero Tolerance--the booklet, a companion video, and the conference--were products of that task force.

October 25, 2006: The Beyond Zero Tolerance conference, hosted and co-sponsored by DPA, takes place in San Francisco.

September 2006: DPA produces a video to bring the Beyond Zero Tolerance recommendations to life for educators.

September 2005: DPA publishes Beyond Zero Tolerance, a drug education booklet for parents and educators.