International Drug Policy Reform Conference, Part 2

I wanted to mention a few other people I got to visit with at the Drug Policy Alliance Conference in New Orleans. These are just a few of the 1200 totally awesome people who were there:

Brenda and Bruce Shoop of Green Earth Ministries are attempting to take a personal tragedy and turn it into a blessing for us all. They were arrested for growing a plant in their back yard and are going to use their case to fight all the way to the Supreme Court for the right to use cannabis as a sacrament.

I met Peter Sarosi of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union four years ago at the Newark DPA conference, and was impressed at the time to learn that at the age of 25 he'd translated Dr. John Morgan's Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts into Hungarian. He attended the New Orleans conference and had a part on a panel discussion of European drug reform efforts. One interesting action the cannabis consumers in Hungary organized was the Civil Obedience Campaign, where Cannabis consumers showed up at police stations and asked to be arrested, hoping to bring public attention to the irrational and unjust laws.

It was also great to reconnect with Kay Lee, the driving force behind Making the Walls Transparent and the Journeys for Justice.

And I lucked out by having a cool room mate for the week end... Charmie Goulson, a radio personality from Ann Abor, Michigan. Her program is called Renegade Solutions.