THE 2005 INTERNATIONAL DRUG POLICY REFORM CONFERENCE - A SUPERB EVENT!

DrugSense www.DrugSense.org and its major projects, the Media
Awareness Project www.mapinc.org and Drug Policy Central
www.drugpolicycentral.com, were well represented at The 2005
International Drug Policy Reform Conference
http://www.drugpolicy.org/events/dpa2005/ held November 10th through
12th at the Westin Hotel in Long Beach, California.

Philippe Lucas, Director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society
http://thevics.com and Canadians for Safe Access
http://safeaccess.ca, both out of Victoria, British Columbia,
moderated a panel titled, "O Cannabis: Cutting-Edge Research in Canada"

Steve Heath, the leader of MAP's Media Activism Facilitator project
http://www.mapinc.org/resource from Clearwater, Florida, participated
on a five person panel, "Making the News: How to Get the Media to
Cover your Issue," with the communications staffs of the Marijuana
Policy Project http://www.mpp.org and the Drug Policy Alliance
http://www.drugpolicy.org.

The DrugSense Key Supporters Breakfast, organized by Mary Jane
Borden, Fundraising Specialist/Business Manager for DrugSense,
recognized DrugSense' 10-year anniversary and welcomed 28 guests. The
continuing tight financial situation for DrugSense was reviewed, and
guests provided valuable suggestions for improving funding. As a
result, the DrugSense Advisory Board has been created to provide
input on fundraising, operations, and strategic planning. We thank
the funder who covered the cost of this breakfast. Please see
http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm to make a tax-deductible donation.

As a result of a generous scholarship program provided by Common
Sense for Drug Policy http://csdp.org, many people were able to
attend this conference who had never been to a similar international
event before. MAP volunteers who attended via these scholarships
were Greg Francisco, David Michon, Kirk Muse, and Elizabeth Wehrman.

MAP archived news clippings about the conference include
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1801/a02.html from the Salt Lake
Tribune announcing that Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson had
received the Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for Outstanding
Achievement in the Field of Drug Policy Reform and
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1797/a08.html from Chicago area
bimonthly, In These Times, highlighting LEAP's significant presence
at the gathering.

The highlight of the conference for DrugSense/MAP staff and
volunteers was the award ceremony at which the organization received
the Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen
Action. This award honors citizens who make democracy work in the
difficult area of drug law and policy reform. The award was presented
by Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
http://www.leap.cc. Accepting the award on behalf of everyone at
DrugSense were Executive Director Mark Greer and Webmaster Matt
Elrod, who also leads our Technical Support Team. More information
about the award and a photo of it can be found on
http://drugsense.org/awards/randall.htm

Audio excerpts from our award acceptance speech can be heard at about
20 minutes into this mp3 http://www.drugtruth.net/MP3/FDBCB_111805.mp3

Other awards presented at the conference are listed on this webpage:
http://www.drugpolicy.org/events/dpa2005/awards/

The Drug Policy Alliance has a collection of conference pictures on
this webpage: http://www.drugpolicy.org/events/dpa2005/pictures/.

DrugSense is organizing it's own collection of conference photos, a
work in progress, which can be viewed by registered DrugSense users
here: http://drugsense.org/dpa2005/

Finally, we at DrugSense would like to express our sincerest thank
you to the funders and supporters who enabled this conference to be a
huge success, who helped so many to attend it, and who voted their
hearts and minds by awarding us the Robert Randall Award. Let's hope
that the next ten years celebrate the institution of sensible and
compassionate drug policies worldwide and that efforts toward these
policies inspired by this conference are well on their way to
fruition by the next Drug Policy Alliance Conference.