These conferences have been held around the world for two decades and, for 2010, we are returning to the city which hosted the first conference in 1990 – Liverpool, England.

This workshop will introduce Tatarsky’s Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy a new approach to effective treatment of substance using patients.

Treating Drug and Alcohol Users in Your Practice: Rationale, Theory and Technique of Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy

Dear friends,

Hear what DPA Executive Director Ethan Nadelmann had to say about the Reform Conference.

Watch the video

Electrifying.

That’s how it felt last week in Albuquerque to gather with more than 1,000 activists working for drug policy reform.

Even if you couldn’t make it to the Reform Conference yourself, you can check out the major plenary speeches, candlelight vigil, and our Twitter feed – you can start by hearing how energized I was on the last day of the conference.

You won’t believe how fired up former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson was at the closing plenary.  You’ll be moved by the speakers at our candlelight vigil in honor of drug war victims.  And you can get a sense of what it was like to be there on the ground from the loyal reformers who Tweeted from the conference.

Last week in Albuquerque I saw a movement inspired, reenergized, and eager to meet the challenges and successes of the road ahead.

I hope you will keep this feeling with you in the months to come, and mark your calendars for the next Reform Conference – November 2-5, 2011 at the Westin Bonaventure hotel in Los Angeles, California.

Thank you, now and in the future, for all that you do.

Sincerely,

Ethan Nadelmann
Executive Director
Drug Policy Alliance

P.S. Don’t forget to check out the videos from this year’s conference!

      and

     Reform Conference Co-Hosts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                                                   

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Marijuana Policy Project’s 15th Anniversary Gala to Celebrate ‘15 States in 15 Years’

Celebrity guests and other prominent figures will help celebrate MPP’s remarkable passage of improved marijuana laws in 15 states in 15 years

CONTACT: Mike Meno, MPP assistant director of communications …… 202-905-2030 or mmeno@mpp.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Marijuana Policy Project, America’s largest marijuana policy reform organization, will look back on 15 productive years of improving marijuana laws at a January 13 gala that will feature guest speakers such as talk show host Montel Williams. The star-studded host committee includes Melissa Etheridge, Tom Robbins, Bill Maher, Ben Taylor, Steve Buscemi, Susan Sarandon, Lewis Black, Nicole Atkins, Margaret Cho, Mark Leno, Hal Sparks, Ani DiFranco, Garry Trudeau, and Medeski, Martin and Wood, along with many other prominent supporters.     

         When MPP was founded in 1995, medical marijuana was illegal in all 50 states.  Since then, 13 states have passed medical marijuana laws, with Michigan becoming the 13th state in November 2008, when Michigan voters passed MPP's ballot initiative by a 63% to 37% margin.  By the end of 2010, MPP is hopeful that medical marijuana will be legal in 15 states (with passage in New York and New Jersey).

         At the same time, marijuana possession is now decriminalized in 13 states, with Massachusetts becoming the 13th state in November 2008, when Massachusetts voters passed MPP's ballot initiative by a 65% to 35% margin.  In 2010, MPP is hopeful that marijuana will be decriminalized in 15 states (with Rhode Island and Vermont becoming the 14th and 15th states).

         WHAT: The Marijuana Policy Project’s 15th Anniversary Celebration

         WHEN: January 13, 2010. Press Availability from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m.

                        Reception from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Dinner from 7:30 to 11:00 p.m.

         WHERE: Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill, 400 New Jersey Avenue, NW, 20001

         Tickets cost $250 each, or $2,000 for a table.

         With more than 29,000 members and 100,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit http://MarijuanaPolicy.org.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 18, 2009
CONTACT: Margaret Dooley-Sammuli at (213) 291-4190 or Stephen Gutwillig at (323) 542-6510

California Budget Deficit Balloons, While Prisons on Schedule to Overspend by $1.4 Billion

Advocates Condemn Sacramento’s Priorities: “California’s Incarceration Spending Locks Up Our Tax Dollars”

SACRAMENTO – The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office announced today that it expects the California state budget deficit to exceed $20 billion by the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year, and that the state will spend $1.4 billion more on prisons than was budgeted in 2009-10. Advocates criticize the state for failing to make real cuts to prison spending, while enacting brutal cuts to important social services.

“California’s prison spending is totally out of whack and it’s locking up tax dollars that now aren’t available for education and other community services like fire protection and elder care,” said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance in Southern California. “Other states, like New York, have reduced their crime rates and their prison populations at the same time. California should follow their lead.”

The Legislature and governor approved $1.2 billion in unallocated cuts to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) in late July. On September 11, the Legislature sent a bill to the governor that would realize just $200-300 million in cuts. According to the LAO’s report, prison spending will exceed its 2009-10 budgeted level by $1.4 billion.

“Sacramento said that it would cut prison spending by $1.2 billion – but that was a lie. That should come as no surprise; the prisons have overspent their budget by hundreds of millions of dollars in each of the past several years,” Dooley-Sammuli continued. “With the state near fiscal collapse, this just won’t do any longer. Prisons, like other resources, should be used wisely. They simply aren’t the right place for people convicted of petty offenses, particularly low-level, non-violent drug law violations.”

According to the CDCR, over 30,000 people are locked up in California state prisons for a non-violent drug offense – at a total cost of $1.5 billion per year. Instead of reducing costs by addressing the number of people incarcerated for petty drug offenses, however, the state recently announced that it would cut by 70% the amount of drug treatment offered behind bars and by 40% the amount of drug treatment offered on parole.

The LAO report is online at: http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/PubDetails.aspx?id=2143

# # #

In June we highlighted a bus advertising campaign, "Nice People Take Drugs," conducted by the British drug reform advocacy group Release. Some of the nice people from Release attended the big drug policy conference in Albuquerque last week, and they were nice enough to give us one of their new "Nice People Take Drugs" decks of playing cards, featuring politicians from the US, UK and elsewhere and the quotes they've given about their past drug use. (Whether all of the featured politicians are nice people is a subjective question, of course.) The front of the cards feature the organization's web site and a toll-free helpline, hard to see in the picture (0845 4500 215 if you're in Britain and need the help).

Albuquerque's "British Invasion" also featured the Transform Drug Policy Foundation's new publication, After the War on Drugs: Blueprint for Regulation. Check Drug War Chronicle later this week for a conference report highlighting this and more.

Here's a sampling of the Release cards:

Last but not least, for now, a picture I snapped during the conference's closing plenary, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson delivering the keynote:

In an historic shift, the country's largest physician group, the American Medical Association (AMA), has reversed its long-held position that marijuana has no medical value.

Hundreds, possibly more than a thousand, people poured into the Convention Center in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, as the Drug Policy Alliance's