Job Opening: IDPI seeks a dynamic person of faith to mobilize religious leaders in support of regulating marijuana like alcohol
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March 8, 2006
###### So much has happened since our last update. We have been very busy building a national faith-based movement for more compassionate and less coercive drug policies. 2006 is really shaping up to be a huge year for progress in our important work. ######
In this update:
1. Job Opening: IDPI seeks a dynamic person of faith to mobilize religious leaders in support of regulating marijuana like alcohol.
2. IDPI plays a key role in the Rhode Island medical marijuana victory
3. Mainstream religious groups help church gain the right to use an illegal drug
4. Federal financial aid is restored to some college students with drug convictions
5. IDPI welcomes Louise Joseph to its team
6. IDPI welcomes Rev. Terry Hawkins to its team
7. IDPI welcomes Rev. Eddie Lopez
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1.
Job Opening: IDPI seeks a dynamic person of faith to mobilize religious leaders in support of regulating marijuana like alcohol.
Please visit our Opportunities with IDPI section for the full job announcement
2. IDPI plays a key role in the Rhode Island medical marijuana victory
On January 3, 2006 the Rhode Island House of Representatives voted to override the governor’s veto, making Rhode Island the 11th state to make medical marijuana legal under state law.
Just 24 hours before the vote IDPI found out that some supportive legislators were jumping ship in response to unexpected pressure from the governor and outside drug-war hawks. Both IDPI Executive Director, Charles Thomas, and Associate Director, Troy Dayton, were away visiting family at the time.
But when duty called, Charles took a detour on his way to New Hampshire with his wife and baby and spent the day talking to legislators in Rhode Island about the religious groups that support medical marijuana and the moral reasons to allow it. Troy was visiting his grandmother in New Jersey at the time. She graciously allowed her house to become a loud office while Troy cold-called over 100 religious leaders from supportive denominations in key state legislative districts to ask them to make last minute phone calls to their legislators.
Along with many other final efforts by the Marijuana Policy Project and others, we succeeded in turning the tide back in our favor in the eleventh hour. Without the pressure IDPI generated from the faith community, medical marijuana patients in Rhode Island might still be living in fear.
You can learn more about the Rhode Island victory by visiting the Marijuana Policy Project website
3. Mainstream religious groups help church gain the right to use an illegal drug
On February 21, in a case pitting religious rights against federal drug laws, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that U.S. followers of a small Brazilian-based religion can import and use tea containing DMT (an illegal psychedelic substance) in their ceremonies.
The court's opinion - the first ruling on religious freedom written by new Chief Justice John Roberts - rejected the U.S. government's effort to stop the import and use of sacramental hoasca tea by the New Mexican branch of the religion.
Among the groups submitting amicus briefs in favor of the church's right to use this powerful psychedelic included some of the most powerful religious groups in the country: the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Presbyterian Church (USA), the National Association of Evangelicals, the Baptist Joint Committee, the Christian Legal Society, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, the
Unitarian Universalist Association and others.
Get more info on this case at http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N211595.htm
4. Federal financial aid is restored to some college students with drug convictions
On February 1, 2006, Congress moved to scale back a law that denies college financial aid to students who have a drug conviction. The change, approved by the House, amends the Higher Education Act to allow some students with past offenses to receive aid. Unfortunately, it still retains the penalty for those whose offenses were committed while
they were enrolled in school and receiving aid.
While this is a partial victory, it is still a victory. This is the first federal drug law scaled back in over a decade.
IDPI has been active in getting major religious groups to take a stand against this cruel law. A number of these groups are active in CHEAR, the Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform. The following religious groups support the full repeal of this law:
National Council of Churches
United Methodist Board of Church and Society
Progressive National Baptist Convention
United Church of Christ
Religious Society of Friends (Philadelphia Yearly Meeting)
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Church of the Brethren Witness
Presbyterian Church (USA)
Unitarian Universalist Association
Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Church Women United
Progressive Jewish Alliance
Ask your members of Congress to support full repeal of this law by visiting http://ga0.org/campaign/HEA. Please alter the letter to reflect the support from the faith community. If your faith informs your views on this, please state that in the letter.
5. IDPI welcomes Louise Joseph to its team
All aspects of IDPI's growth complement each other and synergistically work to leverage the most power for drug policy reform. A pivotal element of this plan is the addition of Louise Joseph to the team, IDPI's third full-time staff member.
As our new operations and technology coordinator is in the process of implementing an overhaul of IDPI's operational infrastructure so that it can thrive through the challenges of expansion. Having someone to upgrade and handle the information, technology, administrative and communication systems allows Troy and Charles to focus more attention on the proactive endeavors of building a national
faith-based movement to challenge the immorality of the Drug War.
Louise comes from a conservative evangelical Christian faith tradition and has long-considered the Drug War to be inconsistent with her values. She comes to IDPI from a faith-based assisted living non-profit where she served as an administrative assistant and technology guru.
6. IDPI welcomes Rev. Terry Hawkins to its team
Rev. Terry Hawkins is mobilizing the faith community behind the repeal of mandatory minimum drug sentencing in Maryland. For the next few months she will be working full-time generating pressure on target legislators from religious leaders in their districts and testifying before the Maryland legislature.
Rev. Hawkins is an African-American minister, reared in the Pentecostal Church who earned a Masters in Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary. She brings to IDPI the experience of leading the religious advocacy efforts of the national Children's Defense Fund and as a social worker helping families cope with the pressures of poverty
and drug abuse.
Drug sentencing in Maryland is arguably the most egregious example in the country of the disproportionate impact that the Drug War has on communities of color. According to the Justice Policy Institute, although black people constitute 28% of Maryland's population and roughly the same percentage of drug users, they represent 68% of all people arrested for a drug offense and 90% of people incarcerated for a
drug offense!
IDPI has a great track record of mobilizing the faith community in Maryland behind drug policy reform. In 2004, IDPI played a key role in the passage of a bill that diverts some low-level, non-violent drug offenders into treatment instead of prison. In 2005, we built support for the repeal of mandatory minimums but the coalition of advocates fell short of changing the policy.
This year, with Rev. Hawkins on the case, we plan to win.
7. IDPI welcomes Rev. Eddie Lopez
Rev. Eddie Lopez, Jr., is a faith-based organizing powerhouse and long-time champion of ending the Drug War.
He served as senior pastor of a large congregation in the South Bronx for seventeen years where he also worked as the director for Human Rights and Racial Justice for the General Board of Global Ministries for the United Methodist Church. As the former director of an Americorps program for the National Council of Churches, he recruited 1600 Latino/a people to volunteer in 800 non-profit organizations that address the social needs of their communities.
Rev. Lopez's ministry began at the NYC Department of Corrections where he served as the chaplain for adolescents in the criminal justice system. This is where he saw that the War on Drugs was causing more problems than it was solving. Since then he has been an outspoken advocate for substantial reforms.
We are pleased to have him join IDPI's distinguished Leadership Council. To learn more about the other members of IDPI's Leadership Council please visit our Leadership Council section for the full job announcement.
Interfaith
Drug Policy
Initiative, P.O. Box 6299, Washington,
D.C. 20015
Phone: 301-933-7681 Fax:301-933-7682 |
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