Forum: Where Is Marijuana Reform Heading?
The ACLU-WA presents a discussion on the history, current status, and future of marijuana-law reform in Washington and the United States. Local and national panelists include travel writer Rick Steves; Keith Stroup, founder of, and legal counsel to, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws; Washington state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles; Rob Kampia, co-founder and executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project; and Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Moderated by ACLU-WA Drug Policy Director Alison Holcomb.
Free and open to the public. This is not a ticketed event. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Panelist Bios
Rob Kampia is co-founder and executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, the largest organization in the U.S. that's focused exclusively on ending marijuana prohibition; MPP and Kampia are based in Washington, D.C. Kampia has testified before Congress, the Washington state legislature, and nearly a dozen other state legislatures. Kampia has debated on national TV dozens of times, including on NBC's "Today Show," the Fox News Channel's "O'Reilly Factor," CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," the Fox Business Network, CNBC, and MSNBC. MPP was partially or exclusively responsible for enacting the medical marijuana laws in the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Rhode Island, and Vermont; the marijuana decriminalization law in Massachusetts; local marijuana initiatives that have passed in Seattle and dozens of other cities; and the U.S. Justice Department's policy to de-prioritize the enforcement of federal marijuana laws in (the now 14) states where medical marijuana is legal.
Jeanne Kohl-Welles has represented the 36th Legislative District in the Washington State Senate since 1994 after serving for three years in the House of Representatives where she was Majority Whip. In addition to her chairmanship of the Sen. Labor, Commerce & Consumer Protection Committee, Sen. Kohl-Welles sits on the Senate Ways & Means and Judiciary Committees. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education from UCLA and was a Fannie Mae Foundation Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government’s Senior Executives in State and Local Government Program. Sen. Kohl-Welles was prime sponsor of SB 6032 (passed in 2007), which clarified Washington’s medical marijuana law and required the state Department of Health to study patient access issues, and SB 5798 (passed in 2010), which expanded the list of healthcare professionals who can authorize the medical use of cannabis to include physician assistants, osteopathic physicians’ assistants, advanced registered nurse practitioners, and naturopathic doctors.
Ethan Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a leading organization in the United States promoting alternatives to the war on drugs grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights. Nadelmann was born in New York City and received his B.A., J.D., and Ph.D. from Harvard, and a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics. He then taught politics and public affairs at Princeton University from 1987 to 1994, where his speaking and writings on drug policy—in publications ranging from Science and Foreign Affairs to American Heritage and National Review—attracted international attention. He authored Cops Across Borders, the first scholarly study of the internationalization of U.S. criminal law enforcement, and co-authored another book entitled Policing the Globe: Criminalization and Crime Control in International Relations, published by Oxford University Press in 2006.
Rick Steves grew up in Edmonds, Washington and studied at the University of Washington where he received degrees in Business Administration and European History. But his real education came in Europe — since 1973 he's spent 120 days a year in Europe. Spending one third of his adult life living out of a suitcase in Europe has shaped his thinking. Today he employs 80 people at his Europe Through the Back Door headquarters where he produces over 50 guidebooks on European travel, the most popular travel series in America on public television, a weekly hour-long national public radio show, and a weekly column syndicated by the Chicago Tribune. Rick Steves lives and works in his hometown of Edmonds, Washington. His office window overlooks his old junior high school.
Keith Stroup is a Washington, D.C. public-interest attorney who founded NORML in 1970. Stroup obtained his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Illinois in 1965, and in 1968 he graduated from Georgetown Law School. Following two years as staff counsel for the National Commission on Product Safety, Stroup founded NORML and ran the organization through 1979, during which time 11 states decriminalized minor marijuana offenses. Stroup has also practiced criminal law, lobbied on Capitol Hill for family farmers and artists, and served as executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). In 1994 Stroup resumed his work with NORML, serving again as Executive Director through 2004. He currently serves as Legal Counsel with NORML. In 1992 Stroup was the recipient of the Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Drug Policy Reform presented by the Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, D.C.
The Marijuana Policy Project, along with a coalition of allies, has called for President Obama to withdraw the nomination of Michele Leonhart as DEA Administrator. Under Leonhart's leadership the DEA has staged medical marijuana raids in direct defiance of Attorney General Eric Holder's directive to respect state medical marijuana laws. 
Maine's medical marijuana law has taken a great stride in the right direction as the state issues the first licenses to dispensaries there. This is the implementation of a law passed last November when residents voted on an MPP-drafted initiative to add dispensaries to the state's existing medical marijuana legislation. 
The DEA, under Michele Leonhart, has once again thumbed its nose at the Obama administration's directive to not interfere with medical marijuana providers legally operating within state laws. Raids conducted in California last week on state-legal medical marijuana operations have yet to be explained by the DEA. 
University of Michigan researchers have come to the conclusion that marijuana use is associated with the lowest rate of drug-related emergency room visits. Though unlikely to change the minds of drug-warriors across America, this data is a valuable tool in countering their rhetoric. 
We do! Make sure you're following MPP on Twitter! It's fast, easy, and free to sign-up so what are you waiting for? MPP's Twitter page is a great way to get up-to-date stories related to marijuana prohibition, interact with other supporters, and stay current on all the latest in marijuana policy reform. 
Esequiel Hernandez, a U.S. citizen, was shot and killed by Marines patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border for drug smugglers.
Wal-Mart continues to find itself under pressure from medical marijuana advocates as the American Civil Liberties Union has stepped forward to file a lawsuit against the corporation for its firing of medical marijuana patient Joseph Casias. 
Colorado, long an important front for battling marijuana prohibition, is under pressure from veterans and medical marijuana advocates pressing the state to allow medical marijuana for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. 
The Wall Street Journal recently ran a piece titled "Strapped Police Run on Fumes, and Federal Pot-Fighting Cash" detailing the ways in which federal dollars keep police forces afloat while forcing them to pursue ineffective eradication efforts. 
Our allies at the Drug Policy Alliance recently released a study finding, among other things, that although blacks use marijuana at roughly the same rate as whites, they are being arrested at up to four times the rate as whites. This absolute lack of racial justice is just one more reason we need to end marijuana prohibition today. 
We do! Did you know that the Marijuana Policy Project is on Facebook? No? That's alright, it's never to late to join us! MPP's Facebook page is a great way to get up-to-date stories related to marijuana prohibition, interact with other supporters, and stay current on all the latest in marijuana policy reform. 
Robin Prosser, suffering from excruciating pain, took her own life when she was unable to get the medicine she desperately needed.