I can't remember when I first met Lynn Etta Zimmer. It must have been at a Drug Policy Foundation conference in 1988 or 1989. Shortly thereafter, Lynn and I were two of only three women in the 18-member Princeton Working Group.

My "piece" of the book to be created by the Princeton Working Group was drug education. Except for what I had learned at DPF conferences about the flaws in conventional drug education, and what a "harm reduction" approach would look like, I knew next to nothing.

Lynn became my "teens and drugs" mentor. She knew so much about early alcohol and drug education/propaganda, the late 1970s parents' groups that begot "just say no,"  and
generously and patiently brought me along.

Lynn worked closely with me on my 1996 pamphlet (published by NCCD), "Kids, Drugs, and Drug Education: A Harm Reduction Approach," which later became "Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens, Drugs, and Drug Education."

In 1998, when I was asked by the San Francisco Chronicle to write a letter about drugs to my 14-year-old son, Johnny, Lynn was right there with me, helping to craft the document that so impressed the California State PTA, as well as many other conventional institutions (and will likely stand as the most important piece of writing in my repertoire).

Lynn and I became partners in drug education, thinking of ourselves as together leading the new "parents movement" of hip Baby Boomers who would  reject abstinence-only education in favor of harm reduction.

With Lynn in the lead, in 1999 we created a video called "Let's Talk" of teens talking about drug education. Lynn spent countless hours with the producers. She arranged the interviews, wrote the questions, and then stayed on top of the editing to produce a timeless and invaluable video. We continue to use that wonderful video today-7 years later, as do many others.

Lynn, and the "Let's Talk" video were featured prominently in the Lindesmith Center's "Just Say Know: New Direction in Drug Education" conference in 1999 in San Francisco. Her conventional look, coupled with her Midwest (really upstate NY) calming manner provided the perfect opening. I continue, to this day, to use her expression, "I worry…" which connected her (and now me) to the PTA moms who also worry about their kids.

By the late 1990s, having co-authored Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts (with John Morgan), Lynn focused her attention on cannabis, comfortable (I think) that I was handling the drug education issue. She began turning over her extensive drug education library to me, which is now housed in the San Francisco office of the Drug Policy Alliance. But before MS disabled her, we envisioned ourselves "out there" as partners. She told me many times how sorry she was to have "abandoned" me in that treacherous territory, and continued to help with our drug education project, available always to answer questions from our website visitors, and me.

In her work, Lynn was a perfectionist, and wouldn't let a piece of writing out of her hands until she was completely satisfied. She knew a lot about a range of drug policy issues, including drug testing, and just a couple of weeks ago sent me a piece she'd written about lowering the drinking age. But because she insisted on absolute perfection, co-authoring with LynnE was a nightmare, and her library is full of unpublished manuscripts in various forms of completion.

Lynn also became one of my closest friends. She was generous to a fault, and constantly giving me (and the rest of her vast circle of friends and family) jewelry, clothes, cooking supplies, flowers. Most of all, even as her health declined, she generously provided a sounding board and consistently gave wise advice.

I can't believe she's gone. I've lost my mentor and the smartest person I know about the issue most dear to me as well as a dear, dear friend.

Marsha Rosenbaum
July 8, 2006

[Lynn Zimmer died on July 2, 2006.]