StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet)

StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet) calls for an end to drug prohibition (e.g. some form of legalization), and its replacement with some sensible framework in which drugs can be regulated and controlled instead. Founded in 1993 by executive director David Borden, DRCNet has from the beginning called unambiguously for an end to prohibition; we are the largest "full-purpose" national membership organization with a wide range of programs to hold that position.

DRCNet is the acknowledged leader in the field of online educational publishing in drug policy reform. Our educational programs are global in scope; currently the primary ones include the acclaimed weekly online newsletter Drug War Chronicle, and now the "Stop the Drug War Speakeasy" blogosphere network. Drug War Chronicle is a major resource used extensively by activists, media and leaders in a range of relevant professions to empower their work. In 2003 DRCNet organized an educational Latin American drug legalization summit in Mexico, in which legislators from six nations including a Colombian senator and former supreme court chief justice participated, a record level of high-level political participation for a drug reform conference.

DRCNet is also a "support" organization that uses our 27,000-person online network and publishing venues to build, support and amplify the work of all the other organizations in the movement -- DRCNet in fact directly started or enabled the founding of three other organizations, including Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Flex Your Rights and Drugsense.

Finally, DRCNet is an advocacy organization that works for concrete policy reform in the US at both the federal and state level. DRCNet is the organization that launched the campaign to repeal the drug provision of the Higher Education Act, a law which delays or denies financial aid to would-be students because of drug convictions. This campaign scored a major victory with the scaling back of the law in February 2006 and again in 2008. DRCNet founded and coordinates the Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform, which has broadened the effort to also target the inadvertent denial of state financial aid that this federal law has caused. In 2002 DRCNet organized a CHEAR press conference outside the US Capitol which set another record for drug policy reform by drawing the participation of ten members of Congress. DRCNet also disseminates "action alerts" urging our supporters to lobby Congress and other policymaking bodies in support of positive reforms such as sentencing reductions, medical marijuana and needle exchange and in opposition to new mandatory minimum sentences and escalation of the drug war in Colombia, and many other issues.

A DRCNet program that straddles advocacy, education and charity is the John W. Perry Fund, a program assisting students who have lost federal financial aid because of drug convictions with scholarships. The Perry Fund has distributed more than $20,000 in scholarships to 15 students, several of whom have gone on to do interviews with major media outlets. DRCNet's National Perry Fund Campaign has held receptions featuring several members of Congress as well as other political leaders, celebrities and prominent advocates. The Perry Fund was responsible for locating two of the three student plaintiffs in a lawsuit organized by the ACLU that is challenging the drug provision on constitutional grounds.

DRCNet opposes the prison-building frenzy and supports rational policies consistent with the principles of peace, justice, freedom, compassion and truth. Each of these has been compromised in the name of the Drug War. (read less)

StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet) calls for an end to drug prohibition (e.g. some form of legalization), and its replacement with some sensible framework in which drugs can be regulated and controlled instead. Founded in 1993 by executive director David Borden, DRCNet has from the beginning called unambiguously for an end to prohibition; we are the largest "full-purpose" national membership organization with a wide range of programs to hold that position.

DRCNet is the acknowledged leader in the... (read more)