Drug
Policy Alliance
This is the world's largest drug policy reform organization.
DPA promotes non-punitive harm reduction through various public-information
campaigns. They aim to minimize the damage caused by drug
abuse, as well as the harm caused or exacerbated by drug prohibition.
Their website includes an extensive library of resources on
drug policy and a large section on alternative drug control
strategies. This website also provides activists with the
ability to fax your legislators on a variety of drug policy
bills by simply typing in your contact information and clicking
a button.
Marijuana
Policy Project
MPP works to replace marijuana prohibition with reasonable,
compassionate policies designed to reduce the harm associated
with marijuana. With the largest membership base in the marijuana
law reform movement, MPP has successfully influenced several
state and federal policies and regularly appears in major
news publications. Their web page contains numerous studies,
reports, surveys, legislative updates, and action alerts on
all facets of the marijuana issue, including medical marijuana.
Unitarian
Universalist for Drug Policy Reform
UUDPR is the nation's only denomination-affiliated
drug policy reform organization, giving public witness to
the Unitarian Universalist denomination's 2002 drug policy
Statement of Conscience.
Families
Against Mandatory Minimums
FAMM is an active grassroots organization
that organizes and lobbies around the repeal of mandatory
minimum sentencing. Mandatory minimum laws force judges to
impose sentences dictated by a legislature (usually at least
5 or 10 years), even if the judge believes that lower sentences
would be appropriate in some cases. FAMM stresses the indiscriminate
nature of mandatory sentences and highlights individuals who
have been punished too severely.
Drug
Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
One major, unique service provided by DRCNet is a free weekly
bulletin letting you know the inside scoop on what's currently
happening within the drug policy reform movement. Sign up
today!
Common
Sense for Drug Policy
The basic mission of Common Sense for Drug Policy is to help
build a grassroots movement against the drug war. The organization
assists local organizations in many ways, from supplying information
and resources to providing electronic forums for discussions
on strategy between drug policy reformers from across the
country. The staff can find appropriate speakers for forums
in almost any locale.
The
Media Awareness Project
The Media Awareness Project website, which
is maintained by DrugSense, includes a searchable database
of over 69,500 + stories. DrugSense is dedicated to informing
the public about the negative consequences of the drug war.
The staff sorts through drug-related articles and sends the
text in e-mail alerts so people can write letters to the editors
of the newspapers and magazines that run the stories.
Criminal
Justice Policy Foundation
The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation advocates for a more
just legal system, particularly but not exclusively in the
realm of drug control. CPJF's main critique of the drug war
is the excessively punitive approach; huge numbers of people
are imprisoned for years or even decades for relatively minor
nonviolent offenses. CJPF president Eric Sterling, a Quaker,
serves on IDPI's Leadership Council.
Harm
Reduction Coalition
The Harm Reduction Coalition focuses on reducing drug-related
harm to individuals and communities by promoting alternative
treatment models developed by drug users and community members
themselves. As a national professional association of harm
reduction service providers, HRC supports local, regional,
and national harm reduction. Along with the DPA, HRC sponsors
the Harm Reduction Training Institute, which offers training
to health care workers, social service practitioners, corporate
managers, and volunteers on how to implement harm reduction
strategies.
Safety
First
Safety First promotes a reality-based approach to teens, drugs,
and drug education.
Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)
A membership-based non-profit research and educational organization
that helps scientists design, fund, and report on studies
on the psychotherapeutic potential of psychedelic drugs and
marijuana. The site contains a lot of useful information,
from summaries of the history of the drugs mentioned to descriptions
of contemporary research.
Center
for Cognitive Liberties and Ethics
This organization argues that cognitive liberty, the freedom
to choose one's own state of consciousness, is a fundamental
right that is ignored by the whole concept of drug prohibition.
Partnership
for Responsible Drug Information
PRDI seeks to enable the democratic process
to develop more effective and humane drug policies. To this
end, they promote open, honest, and well-informed discussion
of drug issues among "opinion-leaders"--educated
leaders and professionals, especially in the media. They advocate
no particular drug control policy. Rather, they insist that
drug policy must be developed by rational procedures consistent
with American democratic ideal.
Reconsider
Reconsider specializes in providing excellent
drug policy reform speakers to community groups, including
congregations.
Council
on Spiritual Practices
The Council on Spiritual Practices is a collaboration among
spiritual guides, experts in the behavioral and biomedical
sciences, and scholars of religion, dedicated to making direct
experience of the sacred more available to more people. There
is evidence that such encounters can have profound benefits
for those who experience them, for their neighbors, and for
the world. This is the best on-line resource for literature
on the spiritual uses of psychedelic substances.
Students
for Sensible Drug Policy
SSDP is an association of local groups of college
students using a variety of tactics to promote an end to the
war on drugs. They provide guidance and resources for student
organizing.
Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition (LEAP)
Current and former members of law enforcement
have recently created a new and important drug-policy reform
group called LEAP. Founded on March 16, 2002, LEAP is an organization
that believes the United States' drug policies have failed
and that to save lives, lower the rate of addiction, and conserve
tax dollars, we must end drug prohibition.
The
November Coalition
The Coalition represents the views of the people
most affected by the drug war, including the families and
communities of drug offenders as well as the prisoners themselves.
The heart of the organization is a vigil campaign directed
at humanizing drug prisoners in the eyes of the public. The
Coalition's newsletter, "The Razor Wire," is a resource
for drug issues of all sorts. The website includes a link
to the Jubilee Justice petition, which requests clemency for
drug prisoners. |