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[Courtesy of Harm Reduction Coalition] 7th National Harm Reduction Conference: Towards A National Policy, November 13-16 2008, Hilton Hotel - Miami Florida, www.harmreduction.org Letter from Allan Clear Dear Friends, Every two years at this time I write an inspirational letter of greeting for this conference announcement. This year the letter writes itself. The Seventh National Harm Reduction Conference is taking place within 9 days of the national elections. There is reason for optimism. With some mobilization, the purveyors of eight long years of lies, corruption, hypocrisy, destruction, nepotism, greed, callousness, con-passion, and debt creation will be shuttled off into a deep, dark, disused uranium mine. We will have an end to the worst presidency in our history. The characters that have lurked, like Harry Potter's death-eating foes, in the White House will be no more (although we all know that people like Cheney exhibit a Voldemort-like quality of never quite going away). A Democrat in the White House will not guarantee that a change is going to come in any significant fashion. But taking a harm reduction approach of "meeting politicians where they are" and embracing any positive change, what can we reasonably expect? An end to the morale-crushing, exodus-inducing politicization of institutions such as the CDC, NIDA and SAMSHA should be on the score sheet. An open dialog with the scientific community about harm reduction-based interventions, such as naloxone and syringe exchange, could be held without the straitjacket of censorship. Local authorities would actually be encouraged to start and expand syringe exchange. A new administration might work with Congress to increase funding for viral hepatitis, eliminate racialized sentencing disparities for crack cocaine, direct SAMSHA to launch a national overdose prevention strategy, and formulate goals to make drug treatment on demand ?including buprenorphine for those at the margins of the health care system?a reality. Global AIDS funding through PEPFAR would be expanded for countries with injection-related HIV epidemics and restrictions on abortion providers, abstinence requirements in HIV prevention, and anti-prostitution "pledges" would be eliminated. Communities and health officials could pursue establishing safe injection spaces and heroin prescription without having to look quite as rigorously over their shoulders for the goon squad to come beating down the doors. And the federal ban on the funding of syringe exchange will ultimately become a footnote in the history of failed governance. Maybe by the year 2013, the feds will actually provide some money for syringe access. We've done the groundwork and the evidence exists to support our efforts, but we will not have an easy path, no matter who is in Congress or the White House. The Seventh National Harm Reduction Conference will have an eye firmly on the national scene. There is no reason why compassion, science and common sense cannot prevail, nor any reason why the United States could not adopt a harm reduction framework to address drug and alcohol problems. Join us in Miami and be part of the direction, planning and brainstorming. See you there. Allan Clear Executive Director

[Courtesy of Yes on Proposition 5] The ills of California's prison system have been diagnosed in one expert report after another, but the prescriptions for change have been ignored. Now, with Proposition 5, voters have the opportunity to enact a range of reforms recommended by experts that would reduce overcrowding and improve rehabilitation. "The prison lobby has dictated criminal justice policies for decades. Look at the results: prisons are stuffed to twice their capacity and the recidivism rate is twice the national average," said Dan Macallair, executive director of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. "Prop. 5 takes a different approach to reduce recidivism – one recommended by criminal justice policy experts from around the country." Voters will decide on Prop. 5 just two weeks before a trial begins in a lawsuit that could result in an outright takeover of California's prison system by a panel of three federal judges. But, as with every prior effort to reform California's prison system, law enforcement groups and the prison guards' union are fighting tooth and nail to prevent reform. The prison guards recently poured $1 million into the No on 5 campaign. "After 25 years in San Quentin, I know how broken our corrections system is. Prop. 5 is the breath of fresh air this system needs," said Jeanne Woodford, former director of the California Department of Corrections under Gov. Schwarzenegger. "I am surprised to see a law enforcement organization that is responsible for public safety opposing an initiative that will not only reduce cost but will also dramatically improve public safety." "We have let law enforcement drive our response to addiction for long enough – and we are all, quite literally, paying the price," said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy campaign manager of Yes on 5. "Now it's finally time to listen to policy experts. By reducing addiction, we'll prevent crime and cut costs to the state." Prop. 5 is endorsed the League of Women Voters of California, the California Nurses Association, California Federation of Teachers and the California Society of Addiction Medicine, the California State Conference of the NAACP and the National Council of la Raza, among many others. The nonpartisan legislative analyst calculates Prop. 5 will reduce incarceration costs by $1 billion annually and save taxpayers $2.5 billion in reduced prison-construction costs. This doesn't include savings related to reduced crime, fewer social services costs (e.g. emergency room visits, welfare), and increased individual productivity. For more information, visit www.prop5yes.com.

The biannual conference of the Alcohol and Drugs in History Society is being hosted for the first time in the UK by the Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare, Glasgow, a research collaboration between the University of Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian University (www.gcal.ac.uk/historyofhealth). The conference is seeking papers and panels that connect with the broad subject of the 'pathways to prohibition'. Proposed papers or panels can be on any topic in the history of intoxicants, drugs and alcohol, and the conference hopes to draw on case studies from all periods and geographical contexts. Some issues to be considered include: 1) The representation of consumers which underlay decisions to instigate or reject prohibition 2) The strategies of consumers and suppliers when confronting the challenges of prohibition 3) Changing ideas about consumption under prohibition regimes 4) The relationship between local initiatives and the national and international politics of prohibition 5) Routes to, and out of, prohibition. Abstracts of proposed papers (no more than 500 words long) or of proposed panels should be sent by e-mail, fax or post by November 15th 2008 to: Dr Patricia Barton CSHHH Dept of History University of Strathclyde 16 Richmond Street Glasgow G1 1XQ UK E: [email protected] Tel: 44 (0)141 548 2932/ Fax: 44 (0)141 552 8509

For Immediate Release: October 21, 2008 Contact: Margaret Dooley-Sammuli at (213) 291-4190 or Tommy McDonald at (510) 229-5215 Drug Czar Backs California Prison Guards, Opposes Unified Treatment Community SACRAMENTO – President George W. Bush’s drug czar today announced his opposition to Proposition 5, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA), which will expand access to drug treatment for young people and nonviolent offenders – and make rehabilitation a priority of the state corrections system once again. “The drug czar is going against the whole of California’s treatment and prevention community to line up with law enforcement. We have tried incarceration as a primary response to addictive illness for decades and failed utterly,” said Dr. Judy Martin, president of the California Society of Addiction Medicine. “The treatment field enthusiastically supports Prop. 5 because it marks a historic shift away from the drug czar’s failed approach and towards a proven one - treatment.” “The drug czar’s rhetorical support for treatment is obviously just a fig leaf for the same old law enforcement approach. This hardline drug czar from a lame-duck administration is now opposing California’s entire treatment community,” said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy campaign manager of Yes on 5. “Back in 2000, the previous drug czar opposed Prop. 36 and that didn’t matter to voters. It’s hard to imagine President Bush’s drug czar having any more influence.” Supporters of Prop. 5 include the League of Women Voters of California, the California Nurses Association, the California Federation of Teachers, the Consumer Federation of California – among many others. Opponents are overwhelmingly law enforcement organizations, with $1 million in with funding from the California prison guards union. The Legislative Analyst’s Office calculates that Prop. 5 will lower incarceration costs by $1 billion each year and will cut another $2.5 billion in state costs for prison construction. This doesn’t include savings related to reduced crime, lower social costs (e.g. emergency room visits, child protective services, welfare), and increased individual productivity. ********** The campaign will make available treatment advocates in support of Prop. 5. For those contacts, please contact Tommy McDonald at (510) 229-5215. For more on Prop. 5, visit www.Prop5Yes.org. ###

We have received much publicity in the Northeast since opening our Prison Art Gallery in Washington, DC, in 2006 for our unique Prison Art Collection. Now the LA Times has featured us in an article about the best places throughout the world to view and acquire art made by imprisoned artists. We look forward to more publicity this winter when we take our new Mobile Prison Art Gallery to art shows and festivals throughout the South.