Leadership Council
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Charles Thomas, IDPI’s executive director,
has 15 years of professional experience in the drug policy reform
movement. He co-founded the Marijuana Policy Project in 1995,
served as director of communications, and left in 2001 to organize
the religious community. As a Unitarian, he persuaded his denomination
to adopt an official statement calling for drug decriminalization.
Charles has testified before several federal and state legislative
and regulatory bodies and has been quoted in most major news publications,
including on the front pages of the New York Times and Washington
Post, and he has appeared on most television news networks.
Eric Sterling, J.D., a member of IDPI Leadership
Council, worked as Counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in
the 1980s and currently runs the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation.
As a Quaker, he convinced his denomination’s regional governing
body to pass a marijuana decriminalization resolution in the mid-1970s.
He also led a religious campaign in 2000, the Coalition for Jubilee
Clemency, convincing President Clinton to release 23 prisoners of
the Drug War.
Jane Marcus, Ph.D., a member of IDPI’s Leadership
Council, worked through her congregation and the Women of Reform Judaism
to persuade the Union for Reform Judaism to pass a resolution in 2003
calling for legal access to medical marijuana. Jane holds a
Ph.D. in Education from Stanford University.
Fr. Joseph Ganssle, OFM, a member of IDPI’s
Leadership Council, founded and ran IDPI’s predecessor, Religious
Leaders for a Moral Drug Policy in the early-1990s. Father Ganssle,
a Catholic priest, currently serves on the advisory board of the Acton
Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. He also founded
a drug treatment program and served as its CEO for 25 years.
Rev. Andrew Gunn, a member of IDPI’s Leadership
Council, founded and ran Clergy for Enlightened Drug Policy, another
IDPI predecessor. Earlier in his career Rev. Gunn, a United
Methodist minister, was the executive director of the Alliance for
the Separation of Church and State.
Interfaith
Drug Policy
Initiative, P.O. Box 6299, Washington,
D.C. 20015
Phone: 301-933-7681 Fax:301-933-7682 |
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