U.S. Drug Policy Conference at Rice University

Multidisciplinary experts from around the world will analyze U.S. drug policy during a two-day conference at Rice University

Hosted by the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, the conference will bring together government, law-enforcement and judicial officials, academicians, health-care experts and representatives from drug-policy organizations around the world to examine the goals of and problems with the nation's drug policy.

"The American �War on Drugs' is highly controversial," said conference organizer William Martin, the Chavanne Professor of Religion and Public Policy at Rice and senior scholar at the Baker Institute. He cited criticism that has been made of the disproportionate sentencing in drug cases, a drug policy that some charge with abetting rather than hindering drug production, negative effects of increased punishment, police corruption, debate over whether marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes and other issues related to drug policy in the United States.

"New approaches and promising measures that appear to be effective in other countries deserved serious, open-minded consideration by key shapers of public policy," Martin said.

The nonpartisan conference is intended to encourage measures that might reduce the consequences of drug use and abuse, including attention to more effective drug education and treatment. "We also hope it will serve as a forum for thought-provoking discussion among proponents of current government policies and foreign and domestic experts who have opposing views to those policies," Martin said.

The first day of the conference will review the goals and major facets of U.S. drug policy and examine key problems associated with the current policy. The second day will address drug policy from an international perspective, including a look at countries where innovative and less-punitive drug policies have led to lower rates of drug use and abuse and crime. Speakers will also address the relationship between drug traffic and international terrorism.

"As with so many of the programs hosted by the Baker Institute, we seek to bring together people who, despite their common interests in a topic, rarely, if ever, talk to each other," Martin said. "Through events like the drug policy conference, we serve as a neutral convener on controversial issues."

Among the scheduled speakers for the conference are Asa Hutchinson, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency; Kevin Zeese, executive director of Common Sense for Drug Policy; Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance; California Judge James Gray, author of "Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It"; Ronald Earle, Travis County (Texas) district attorney; Ernest Drucker, director of Public Health and Policy Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Marsha Rosenbaum, a specialist in drug education; and experts who are from or have spent much time in The Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Bolivia and Colombia.

The conference will be Webcast on www.bakerinstitute.org. Proceedings will be published and distributed to participants, policy makers, the news media and general public in early 2003.

News media who want to attend should contact B.J. Almond in Rice's Office of News and Media Relations, (713) 348-6770 or [email protected].