Drug Policy Alliance Blog
05/02/13
Mike Gray, who passed this week, was a prolific writer, producing screenplays, books, and documentaries.
Right from the beginning of our movement, Mike was a major player in drug policy reform. His 1998 book, Drug Crazy: How We Got into this Mess and How We Can Get Out, which was among the first to parallel alcohol and...
05/01/13
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) released its 2013 National Drug Control Strategy last week. While the rhetoric focused on a public health approach, when you dig to the heart of the matter you still find a criminal justice approach to dealing with drugs. Where there were some...
04/30/13
President Obama made a joke about his marijuana use at last week's White House Correspondents' Dinner. It was just one joke, and it was actually pretty funny. But should President Obama, arguably history's toughest president on marijuana, really be making jokes about marijuana when he knows our laws are...
04/29/13
It’s your turn for your weekly Weight Watchers weigh in. You’re dreading it, remembering your kid’s birthday party and those other times when you busted your diet. You step on the scale. You’ve gained four pounds.
Suddenly the security guard takes you into custody, and the counselor says you’...
03/15/13
In this week's "hypocrisy news," the federal government continues to deny the medical value of cannabis even in light of contrary claims by its own agency, the National Institute of Health.
According to an article on NBC News.com, the Advocates for the Disabled and Seriously Ill (ADSI) took issue with the...
02/28/13
For more than 15 years, I’ve been volunteering with the local syringe access program here in San Francisco. I stand behind a grocery store for a couple of hours on Tuesday nights with some other volunteers, collecting used syringes in a biohazard bucket, and giving out new ones, along with supplies, advice, and...
02/27/13
I think it’s safe to say most people were horrified upon hearing about Emily Baer’s close encounter with death after smoking synthetic cannabis. Some state governments, such as NJ, have recently adopted a ban on synthetic marijuana. Despite first impression, this is the approach to drug policy we...
02/12/13
I firmly believe that at some point during his second administration President Obama is going to address the issue of mass incarceration in America. What I fear is that he is going to wait so long, and ultimately do so with such caution, as to minimize his potential impact.
I'll be listening to his State of the...
01/17/13
Lawmakers across the country are pushing bills to drug test people who apply for certain benefits, like unemployment insurance and welfare. This makes NO sense.
People who apply for unemployment insurance need to have worked within a certain amount of time from when they're applying, and while they were working they...
01/08/13
Former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy knows firsthand about addiction. Kennedy checked into a rehab center in 2007 for his addiction to Oxycodone after crashing his car while intoxicated.
Kennedy is now leading a group called Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) to actively oppose marijuana...















