3/02/09
MP3

Ethan Nadelmann, Drug Policy Alliance executive director, and author and researcher Mitch Earleywine discuss various aspects of marijuana prohibition.

What opportunities are open for drug policy reform in the new Obama administration? An interview with Ethan Nadelmann and Bill Piper. Other stories include reform in New Mexico and New Jersey, politics as usual derails a resolution to oppose the war on drugs in El Paso, and a 101 year old grandmother narrowly averts eviction.

DPA Network experts discuss how special interests defeated the biggest sentencing reform in U.S. history on Election Day in California, and why California is still going strong with treatment-instead-of-incarceration despite the loss of Proposition 5 at the ballot box.

A discussion about DPA Network's drug policy reform voter guide, treatment instead of incarceration legislation in California, and restoring voting rights to felons.

Antonio Maria Costa clarified former UN policies and those under his direction, and also drew comparisons and highlighted contrasts between current UN policy and drug policy reform.

Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of DPA, and Daniel Wolfe, deputy director of the International Harm Reduction Development Project, discuss international drug policy and the impact of Nadelmann's cover article in Foreign Policy magazine.

DPA's Bill Piper speaks with Canadian psychologist Andrew Feldmar about his recent United States entry denial resulted from past drug use.

DPA's Naoma Nagahawatte talks with advocates Cheri and Ricky O'Donoghue about the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws and the effect they have had on their son Ashley.

Drug Policy Alliance Executive Director, Ethan Nadelmann, interviews Robert Sand, Windsor County Vermont state attorney, about his support of ending the war on drugs.

DPA's Executive Director, Ethan Nadelmann, and Bill Piper, DPA's Director of the Office of National Affairs, discuss the opportunities for drug policy reform in the 110th Congress.

DPA Director Ethan Nadelmann debates the efficacy of marijuana as medicine with former member of congress Bob Barr.

In this episode we revisit the ongoing battle to pass syringe access legislation in New Jersey, as well as efforts to keep flash incarceration out of California's landmark treatment bill. But first a look at a bill which would allow student strip searches.

Efforts to protect medical marijuana and treatment instead of incarceration in California.  DUID legislation in Michigan. Fentanyl overdose deaths.

The Voting Rights Act (VRA) passed last week leaves those disenfranchised by felony convictions behind; Activists urge San Diego county to protect medical marijuana patients; DPA supports medical marijuana patient who loses his job over a failed drug test.

On July 13, a judge in CA issued a temporary restraining order to keep a new law modifying Proposition 36 from going into effect. If implemented, SB 1137 would radically change California's landmark treatment-instead-of-incarceration initiative.

In April 2001 the International Harm Reduction Association held its annual conference in New Dehli, India.  This recording was made during Drug Policy Alliance executive director Ethan Nadelmann's keynote speech.

A study presented at a meeting of the American Thoracic Society on May 24 found that smoking marijuana, even heavily, does not increase the risk of cancer. The study was headed by Dr. Donald Tashkin of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

Advocates have fought for years to repeal New York's draconian Rockefeller laws, and DPA has been at the center of that struggle. In 2004 and 2005, DPA helped to pass the first reforms to these laws—the initial steps on the path to real reform. New York took another step toward repealing these terrible laws last week as the Assembly passed a new bill that would further reform the failed laws.

On May 10th, 2006 the Drug Policy Alliance, in conjunction with the Harm Reduction Coalition invited Rick Collins to speak about the policies, practices and perceived dangers surrounding steroid use. Collins is a nationally recognized legal authority on steroids, and had recently testified before the U.S. Sentencing Commission against the proposed sentencing increases for steroids possession. As he explains, steroid use and steroid users are quite different from other drug use and users. Rick Collins sets the record straight in PUMPED: A Truth-Enhancing Seminar on Steroid Use and the Law. Additional resources: Powerpoint presentation and Chapter 23 of his book, "Legal Muscle: Anabolics in America."

The Drug Policy Alliance's New Jersey office has launched a campaign to support medical marijuana legislation introduced this month in the state legislature. Though similar legislation has been introduced in the past, 2006 will be the first time the legislature holds hearings on the subject.

Robert Washburn, an Oregon resident who used medical marijuana to control muscle spasms in his legs, sued his employer after he was fired for a positive drug test. The Oregon Supreme Court ruled in the case earlier this month, saying that the company was allowed to dismiss Wasbhurn because he was not covered by Oregon's statute prohibiting workplace discrimination against disabled persons.

New York prosecutor David Soares made waves when he blasted U.S. drug laws in a speech at last week's International Harm Reduction Association conference in Vancouver, Canada. The Albany district attorney was warmly received at the conference, but his words raised hackles among law enforcement officials in his home district.

In response to pressure from the United States, Mexican president Vicente Fox has sent a drug policy bill back to Congress for revision. Fox had previously committed to signing the bill, which was intended to increase the federal government's ability to pursue drug traffickers.

Mexico's Senate voted last week to decriminalize possession of small amounts of several illicit drugs, including marijuana, cocaine and heroin. President Vicente Fox is expected to sign the bill, allowing Mexico to focus law enforcement resources away from individuals possessing drugs for personal use.

The Food and Drug Administration last week released an advisory claiming that marijuana has no medicinal value, ignoring a substantial body of scientific evidence to the contrary.

More than 500 clients, graduates and supporters of Proposition 36, California’s treatment-instead-of-incarceration law, gathered at the state Capitol on April 19 to celebrate five years of the hugely successful program and demand that it be fully funded.

The latest U.S. government numbers on coca cultivation in Colombia indicate that production has increased over the last five years despite the U.S.-backed eradication program, Plan Colombia.

The U.S. House of Representatives has authorized, and the Senate is considering, a proposal to revive research on the use of toxic, mold-like fungi called mycoherbicides to kill drug crops in other countries. Jeremy Bigwood interviewed. In our second story, UCLA recently released a report praising the cost-saving effects of California's treatment-instead-of-incarceration initiative, Proposition 36.

Angel Raich is back in court with a new strategy less than a year after the Supreme Court decided that the federal government can prosecute medical marijuana patients, even in states where medical marijuana is legal.

The Department of Education agreed this week to settle with Students for Sensible Drug Policy, which sued the agency in January over a Freedom of Information Act request. This marks an important victory in efforts to reform the Higher Education Act drug provision, which denies financial aid to many students with a past drug conviction.

A new national report, authored by the Justice Policy Institute and commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance, finds that drug-free zones fail to protect youth from drug activity, while creating high levels of racial disparity in the criminal justice system.

DPA released a report this week documenting the successes of Proposition 36, the California initiative that mandates treatment instead of incarceration for most people convicted of nonviolent drug possession offenses. The report, entitled Proposition 36: Improving Lives, Delivering Results, found that Prop 36 had significant benefits for treatment as well as reforms to the costly prison system.

In a unanimous ruling Tuesday, the Supreme Court decided that O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal (UDV), a religious congregation based in New Mexico, can use ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic tea, in its ceremonies.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy was greeted by a strong opposition voice when it brought its random student drug testing promotional tour to San Diego Wednesday. Several opponents of random student drug testing raised important questions and distributed materials at the ONDCP summit, and DPA hit the airwaves and the pages of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

For the second year in a row, New Mexico's medical marijuana bill was denied a floor vote by the full House of Representatives. However, a tremendous outpouring of support for the bill from advocates and New Mexico voters made an enormous impact that will carry over into next year.

The Drug Policy Reform movement has been receiving a lot of conservative and civil libertarian support particularly regarding the issue of marijuana regulation.  This podcast features interviews with a couple of CPAC participants in order to get some conservative and civil libertarian perspectives on this and other issues.

A new report, commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance and researched by Justice Strategies, found that Wisconsin could reduce its nonviolent prison population by up to 1,500 prisoners and create annual savings of $43 million by expanding the availability of quality treatment, supervision and "wrap-around" services for nonviolent drug offenders.

The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Americans for Safe Access (ASA) have filed a motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, which seeks to overturn Calfornia's ten-year-old medical marijuana law, the Compassionate Use Act (Proposition 215).

The U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed the freedom of states to control their own public health policies by upholding Oregon's Death With Dignity Act. The U.S. Attorney General had been fighting to overturn the physician-assisted suicide law on the grounds that it violated the Controlled Substances Act, the statute that governs federal drug policies.

Interview: Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a medical marijuana advocacy organization, talks about her involvement in the fight for safe and legal access to medical marijuana.

Interview: Marsha Rosenbaum, Director, Drug Policy Alliance San Francisco Office and California State Parent Teacher Association representatives Carla Nino and Pat Klotz .

Interview: Ethan Nadelmann, Alliance executive director and the co-founder of CodePink, Jodie Evans.

Interview: Luciano Colonna, executive director of the Harm Reduction Project and Salt Lake City Mayor Ross "Rocky" Anderson

11/12/05
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Interview: Reena Szczepanski, director, Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico and New Mexico State Senator Cisco McSorley

11/10/05
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This Spanish translation of a speech given by Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, was recorded during a conference at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia. The title of the speech was "Rethinking Drug Policies in the Americas: The Harm Reduction Paradigm." 

07/26/05
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07/26/05
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06/08/05
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04/28/05
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02/22/05
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12/08/04
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09/14/04
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06/15/04
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