Reform Conference |
Will California, Washington State or Colorado vote to legalize marijuana in 2012?
Justin Sullivan |
California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom will join former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and more than 1,000 drug policy experts and health care professionals for the International Drug Policy Reform Conference, Nov. 2-5 in Los Angeles. |
Drug Policy Alliance |
State of the Movement: What’s it Going to Take to Make Marijuana Legal?
While support for making marijuana legal is growing rapidly and California’s Proposition 19 came close to winning last year, we still haven’t reached the tipping point. What can we expect to see on the ballot in 2012 and beyond? Leading advocates and political consultants will discuss what it will take to win at the state and national level, and share insights from the most extensive marijuana reform public opinion research ever conducted.
Elected Officials: Hearing From Our Representatives on Drug Policy Reform
Elected officials are pivotal to drug policy reform, yet they are often the last ones on board. What are the best arguments to use to persuade elected officials that drug use should be treated as a health issue rather than a criminal justice issue? How can we build bipartisan coalitions for drug policy reform? How can we best support our elected allies as they fight for drug policy reform? And what are the lessons of recent legislative victories and defeats?
The Fresh Scent |
Innovative Approaches to Medical Marijuana Distribution and Services
Patients need improved access to high-quality medical marijuana, support services, and increased civil and legal protections. What are the obstacles? How are different jurisdictions and providers addressing these issues? And how do state and national leaders perceive this issue?
Know Your Rights: How to Deal with Law Enforcement and NOT Get Arrested
The Bill of Rights provides each of us with certain inalienable rights. Flex Your Rights’ Know Your Rights training incorporates real-life scenarios designed for easy application during police encounters. Learn practical methods for retaining and protecting your rights during car stops, street encounters and when the police knock at your door.
Gender Across Borders |
Sex, Drugs, and Building a Movement
Sex workers and drug users are both criminalized for what we do with our bodies, yet we don’t always work together. What are the connections between the sex worker advocacy movement and the drug policy reform movement? How have the laws criminalizing drug use and drug users been adapted and used against sex workers? And how can we build stronger connections across these two movements to reach even larger victories?
Innovative Policy Responses to Overdose
The number of overdose deaths has climbed dramatically in the last decade, mostly because of prescription drugs. Accidental drug overdose is now the second leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Significant federal funding is directed toward preventing HIV/AIDS and homicide, but virtually no federal dollars are designated for overdose prevention – even though overdose kills more people than murder or HIV/AIDS. What is the significance of the successful passage of 911 Good Samaritan legislation in several states, and the expansion of access to the overdose reversal drug naloxone? And what other effective policy responses are available to stem this easily preventable epidemic?
Drug Testing – Kits |
Making Sense of Drug Testing
Despite drug testing’s many limitations, it is used extensively in the criminal justice system, and its use is expanding into other areas such as driving under the influence of drugs checkpoints and welfare eligibility. This panel will examine the scientific limits of drug testing, emerging trends in the use of these tests, and strategies to curtail their use.
The Portuguese Decriminalization Model in Global Context
Portuguese drug policy is widely heralded as an international model. How do we situate the Portuguese experience within a broader international context to examine its significance for European and global drug policy? Is Portugal a model that other countri
es can replicate? Should we be concerned about the Dutch back-tracking? What’s going on in Greece, where the Prime Minister recently introduced a decriminalization proposal? Is Denmark emerging as a new leader? And what’s the evolving role of the European Union?