Bill Piper, Director, Office of National Affairs

Bill Piper is director of national affairs, responsible for developing and implementing strategies for ending the federal war on drugs. He lobbies Congress in support of cutting drug war waste, preventing drug overdoses and the spread of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C, protecting state medical marijuana programs from federal interference, reforming draconian sentencing laws, and re-prioritizing federal law enforcement agencies.

Piper has appeared on numerous radio shows, from “NPR Marketplace” to the “Oliver North Radio Show.” He has been quoted in dozens of regional and national newspapers, including The Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, Roll Call, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today and The Washington Post. He is the author of DPA’s 2008 report, “A Four-Pillars Approach to Methamphetamine: Policies for Effective Drug Prevention, Treatment, Policing and Harm Reduction,” and co-author of DPA’s 2003 report, “State of the States: Drug Policy Reforms, 1996-2002.” His drug policy opinion pieces have appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Chicago Sun-Times, Des Moines Register, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and The Washington Post.

He is perhaps best known for launching a national campaign to stop the RAVE Act, a federal law that makes it easier for the federal government to punish bar and club owners for the drug law violations of their customers. That campaign resulted in tens of thousands of voters contacting their senators, numerous demonstrations around the country (including a “rave” on the lawn of the Capitol Building in Washington), and national media coverage. The resulting legislation was reformed significantly. More recently, Piper led successful campaigns to change federal law to prohibit the White House from using the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign to influence elections and defeat legislation that would have unleashed dangerous mycoherbicides in Latin America and Central Asia. He has worked in coalition to repeal Washington, D.C.’s syringe ban and stop new mandatory minimum sentences from being enacted.

Prior to joining the organization, Piper was director of research for the Initiative and Referendum Institute, a national nonprofit working to preserve and expand the rights of voters to change public policy through the ballot box. Before that, he worked for U.S. Term Limits, the largest grassroots organization working to enact term limits on elected officials. He is a graduate of Indiana University with a double major in political science and economics, and has more than twelve years of political experience in Washington, D.C.