About DPA

The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is the nation's leading organization promoting policy alternatives to the drug war that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.

Our supporters are individuals who believe the war on drugs is doing more harm than good. Together we advance policies that reduce the harms of both drug misuse and drug prohibition, and seek solutions that promote safety while upholding the sovereignty of individuals over their own minds and bodies. We work to ensure that our nation’s drug policies no longer arrest, incarcerate, disenfranchise and otherwise harm millions of nonviolent people. Our work inevitably requires us to address the disproportionate impact of the drug war on people of color.

DPA pursues this work through public education, litigation and lobbying, including publishing reports on drug policy issues, educating journalists to encourage more balanced media coverage of drugs and drug use, promoting reality-based, safety-oriented drug education for youth, maintaining the nation’s most comprehensive drug policy reform library and providing access to research materials to students and experts around the world.

Headquartered in New York, DPA has rapidly expanded to include eight offices, 50 staff, 25,000 dues-paying members, more than 50,000 online subscribers, and a growing track record of success at the local, state and federal levels.

Learn more about our work by reading our 2009 Annual Report. Consider becoming a member of DPA, signing up to receive the latest research updates via email, or visiting our partner organization, DPA Network, to take action for reform.

Read DPA's mission and vision.
Meet DPA's staff.

DPA Accomplishments

The Lindesmith Center collaborated in 1995 with OSI’s program on public health to create the International Harm Reduction and Development program, which has since played a pivotal role in advancing harm reduction in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Asia.
The Lindesmith Center published a critically acclaimed book in 1997, Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts: A Review of the Scientific Evidence, by Lynn Zimmer, PhD and John P. Morgan, MD, widely regarded as the outstanding text on the subject. This best-selling scholarly book dissects and debunks 20 common claims about marijuana.
The Safety First Project was launched in 1998 to provide parents, teens and educators with honest information about marijuana and other drugs, as well as realistic options for dealing with drug use by promoting reality-based models based on comprehensive sex education. It has worked closely and is affiliated with the California Parent-Teacher Association. DPA has distributed worldwide more than 225,000 copies (in nine languages) of Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens, Drugs and Drug Education by Dr. Marsha Rosenbaum who founded the Safety First program. DPA also publishes Beyond Zero Tolerance: A Reality-Based Approach to Drug Education and School Discipline by Dr. Rodney Skager and Making Sense of Student Drug Testing: Why Educators Are Saying No.
The Lindesmith Center’s most dramatic public education initiative was its drafting of an open letter to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in anticipation of the 1998 U.N. General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem. The letter was signed by more than 500 prominent political leaders, scholars academics and scientists from around the world and appeared in the New York Times. The campaign reverberated around the world, gaining major media coverage in more than 30 countries.
In 2000 Ethan Nadelmann and the Lindesmith Center worked closely with Arianna Huffington’s Shadow Conventions to host two unique four-day forums in Los Angeles (alongside the Democratic National Convention) and Philadelphia (alongside the Republican National Convention) to highlight bi-partisan neglect of key social issues, including the failed drug war, income inequality and campaign finance reform.
In 2005, DPA New Mexico assembled stakeholders from around the state to form the New Mexico Methamphetamine Working Group, co-chaired by the governor’s drug czar and the director of DPA New Mexico. The working group produced the first statewide "four pillars" approach to methamphetamine in the U.S. that emphasizes the principles of harm reduction. DPA New Mexico subsequently received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Justice Department to create a statewide methamphetamine education and prevention program.

Governance