CJPF & News Activities
On May 4th, Eric E. Sterling, in his role as co-vice chairman of Montgomery County’s Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Advisory Council, was quoted in a Gazette article about drug abuse. (The article was printed on May 9, Page B-3)
On May 4th, Eric E. Sterling was interviewed by WAMU, American University Radio, about drug addiction in Montgomery County, Maryland.
On April 26th, Eric E. Sterling attended an event about Len Bias, sponsored by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) and Open Society Foundations (OSF) and titled, "A Losing Game: Sports and the 'War on Drugs'- A Conversation With Authors Dave Ungrady and Gregory Jordan." Eric was called on a few times to supplement the panelists' presentations with his knowledge about the drug policy reform movement and the political climate of the 80s. A video of the event can be found here.
On April 16th, Eric E. Sterling was interviewed on CTV's Power Play in an episode about alternatives to Canada's war on drugs. He spoke alongside Mike Moffatt with the Richard Ivey School of Business.
On April 12th, the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, the Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class, and the University of Maryland Carey School of Law chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy hosted a panel discussion titled, "Cannabis: A Viable Treatment for Veterans with PTSD?" Eric E. Sterling spoke on the panel. A video of his speech can be found here.
From March 23-25, Eric E. Sterling and Irina Alexander attended the 13th Annual International Students for Sensible Drug Policy Conference, which hosted over 350 students. Here is the hand-out we gave to attendees to update them on what CJPF has been doing. On March 25th, Eric E. Sterling spoke on a panel titled "Schools NOT Prisons, Not Schools TO Prisons." A video of this presentation will be available soon.
On March 19th, Eric E. Sterling's opinion piece titled, "O'Malley gets it wrong on medical marijuana," was published in The Baltimore Sun. Eric discourages Maryland Governor O'Malley from vetoing the state's medical marijuana bill and explains that federal threats to shut down medical marijuana programs and prosecute state officials are all based on a bluff.
On March 19th, Eric E. Sterling was featured on the Marc Steiner Show, where he spoke about a medical marijuna bill in Maryland.
On March 16th, Eric E. Sterling was quoted in a Mercury News article about Washington, D.C.'s medical marijuana program.
On March 7th, Eric E. Sterling was featured on CTV's Power Play, in an episode about the proposed mandatory minimums in Canada. He spoke about the unexpected negative impact of mandatory minimum laws in the United States, countering Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's arguments in support of such laws.
On March 6, Eric E. Sterling met with a delegation of six members of Home Affairs Committee of the House of Commons, Parliament of the United Kingdom conducting an inquiry into drug policy. The meeting was held in the British Consulate in Miami, Florida, organized by Shawn Heller, Esquire, former Executive Director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Mr. Sterling met with Rt. Hon. Keith Vaz (Labour), Chair; Dr. Julian Huppert (Liberal Democrats); Lorraine Fullbrook (Conservatives); Rt. Hon. Alun Michael (Labour/Co-operative); Nicola Blackwood (Conservatives); and Steve McCabe (Labour).
On March 1st, Eric E. Sterling's opinion piece titled, "The War on Drugs Hurts Businesses and Investors," was published on Forbes.com. Eric addresses the dangers to international business activity from prohibition-financed criminal organizations. He notes that profits of American businesses are hurt because sales are reduced when there are so many prisoners and persons with criminal records. He urges business management and investors to study the economic consequences of criminal justice and drug policy choices for their profits. Read this short commentary and send it to your accountant, your parents, your investment advisor, your insurance agent, etc. Comment on it at Forbes.com, tweet it, and post it to Facebook.
On March 1st, Eric E. Sterling was interviewed on The Current on CBC radio, broadcast throughout Canada in a 24-minute segment on mandatory minimum sentencing in the United States and Canada.
On February 29th, Eric E. Sterling's opinion piece titled, "Canada is repeating U.S. mistakes on drug sentencing," was published in The Ottawa Citizen. He was also quoted in The National Post and The Vancouver Sun.
On February 22nd, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition launched a campaign warning Canada against adopting a mandatory minimum sentencing policy for drug offenses. Eric E. Sterling was interviewed by CTV, Global News, The Canadian Press, and CKNX Radio. He was quoted in multiple articles, including the Toronto Sun, TheStar.com, The Windsor Star, and The Globe and Mail.
On January 23rd, Eric E. Sterling's letter to the editor was published in the Washington Post, in response to Al Kamen’s Jan. 18 column, “ Reefer Madness’ for the YouTube Generation."
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Robert Charles Silver Bob was an alumnus of Columbia College and Harvard Law School, class of 1960. In 1987 he earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from Boston University. Bob was deeply committed to social service and was a member of the boards of the New England Home for Little Wanderers (a large Boston-based social service agency) and Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Massachusetts. |
From January 4-6th, 2012, CJPF and Students for Sensible Drug Policy kicked off the year by sponsoring College Convention 2012 in Concord, NH, a political conference held right before the New Hampshire Presidential Primary. CJPF and SSDP members spent the rest of the week capturing presidential candidates' answers to questions about drug policy reform on video. CJPF's Chief of Staff and SSDP Board Chair, Irina Alexander, confronted Romney, Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul. Eric Sterling spoke to the entire conference on "Drug Policy and the Presidency." He also moderated a panel discussion of law enforcement officers (including members of LEAP) regarding drug prohibition.
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On December 15th, 2011, Eric E. Sterling's letter to the editor about the effect of the slashed mental health service budget on policing was published in The Washington Post.
On November 20th, Eric E. Sterling was featured on the Cultural Baggage Radio Show, where he debriefed his Drug Policy Alliance conference experience.
On November 14th, Eric E. Sterling served as the legal expert at the Society of Inquiry and University of Maryland Students for Sensible Drug Policy's co-sponsored meeting titled, "The Drug War: Mythbusted!"
On November 4th, at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference, Eric E. Sterling organized and moderated a discussion with Bill Zimmerman, author of Troublemaker: A Memoir from the Frontlines of the Sixties, and the architect of the 1996 passage of California’s medical marijuana initiative and 12 other successful drug reform initiatives in states across the country. Zimmerman embodied the 1960s radical and yet was the antithesis of the negative stereotype. Click here to see the video of the discussion.
On November 3rd, Eric E. Sterling spoke on a panel at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference titled, "The Recovery Movement and its Role in Ending the Failed War on Drugs."
On November 2nd, Eric E. Sterling was invited to lecture at Pomona College by the school's history department. His speech was titled, "Obama: Drug War Hawk or Dove? Current Policy and Prospects for Change." Click here to see a video of the speech.
On November 1st, The Huffington Post published a piece by Eric E. Sterling, "Congress on Speed: Partisan Conflict Led to Many Problems in 1986 Drug Law."
On October 21st, Eric E. Sterling spoke on a panel with Jasmine Tyler from the Drug Policy Alliance at Students for Sensible Drug Policy's Mid-Atlantic conference.
On September 19th, the NYPD issued an order forbidding officers from the practice of arresting people for the misdemeanor of public display of marijuana by ordering people to empty their pockets. Read about CJPF's original complaint sent to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights here.
On September 14th, Eric E. Sterling was quoted in a Drug War Chronicle article discussing current drug policy legislation.
On August 1st, Eric E. Sterling was quoted in an article from The Indypendent titled, "If Prohibition is a Failure, What Would Legalization Look Like?"
On June 20th, Eric E. Sterling was featured in a 17-minute interview on NPR's "Talk of the Nation."
On June 19th, Eric E. Sterling was interviewed by Salon's Jonathan Easley about Len Bias's death and its connection to harsh drug laws. The interview is titled, "The Day the Drug War Really Started."
On June 16th, Eric E. Sterling was featured on Culture Shocks, a program hosted by Reverend Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
On June 15th, AlterNet published "40 Years of Drug War Hasn't Worked; 'Time for a Change,' Says 9-Year Veteran," a piece by Eric E. Sterling about the birth of the drug war, its failure, and what we need to do now.
On June 14th, Eric E. Sterling joined members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition at a press conference at the National Press Club, followed by a march to the Office of National Drug Control Policy headquarters to deliver LEAP's newest report about the failed war on drugs. Eric E. Sterling was interviewed by Press TV outside of ONDCP.
On June 12th, Eric E. Sterling was quoted by nationally syndicated columnist, Debra J. Saunders, in the San Francisco Chronicle article, "At Least 4 Good Reasons to End the War on Drugs."
On March 24th, Eric E. Sterling presented at the University of the District of Columbia's David A. Clarke School of Law's "2011 Annual Law Review Symposium: Life After the War on Drugs." Eric E. Sterling's written speech is available here, with a video of the presentation below:
UDC Law Symposium from Criminal Justice Policy on Vimeo.
Patricia M. Spottedcrow, mother of four, received a 12-year prison sentence for selling $31 worth of marijuana in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. Eric E. Sterling comments on the case in Tulsa World on March 22nd.
On March 19, 2011 Students for Sensible Drug Policy honored Eric E. Sterling as the recipeint of the Stuart Ableson Goodwill Award.
March 19, 2011- A room was quickly filled with students as Eric E. Sterling engaged in an impromptu open dialogue with SSDP members from Kent State University and other chapters near the end of the 2011 Students for Sensible Drug Policy Training Conference inside the Stamp Student Union at the University of Maryland.
On March 4, 2011, Eric E. Sterling spoke with ten judges and judicial advisors from francophone Africa through the International Visitor Leadership Program, examining the unconstitutional nature of our government's war on drugs.
On January 26th, Eric E. Sterling was quoted in the Boston Phoenix article, "Strange bedfellows: The right and left team up on criminal-justice reform."
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