{news} Press release for DPA award

[Clifford Thornton]

Hi all,
 
For those living in Connectictut.  This is the official press release.  Please use it as you see fit and thanks to all,
because if it were not for all of you I would not be receiving this prestigous award.
 
 
 
 
 
www.drugpolicy.org<http://www.drugpolicy.org/> 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                       CONTACT: Tony Newman (646)335-5384

November 29, 2007                                                       Tommy McDonald (646)335-2242

 

Cliff Thornton to receive Citizen Action Award from the Drug Policy Alliance

 

Thornton to Receive the Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen Action During International Drug Policy Reform Conference in New Orleans, Dec. 5-8

 

Longtime Connecticut drug policy reform advocate and activist Clifford Thornton will receive the Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen Action from the Drug Policy Alliance. The award honors citizens who make democracy work in the difficult area of drug law and policy reform.

 

Thornton will be among leading advocates that work courageously to promote and implement more sensible drug policies who will be honored at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference<http://conference.drugpolicy.org/>, in New Orleans, December 5-8. The conference is organized by the Drug Policy Alliance and dozens of other organizations. The Drug Policy Alliance is the nation's leading organization working to end the war on drugs and promote new drug policies based on science, compassion, health and human rights. The winners will be honored during an awards ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 8.

 

The biennial awards for achievement in drug policy reform recognize the accomplishments and commitment of people and organizations that have done outstanding drug policy reform work. The awards are given every other year at the international conference of the Drug Policy Alliance. 

 

Thornton is the primary speaker for Efficacy, Inc.<http://www.efficacy-online.org/> - a non-profit organization that has concentrated on drug policy reform. Thornton ran for governor in Connecticut in 2006 on the Green Party ticket. His campaign centered on drug policy reform. Thornton has done over 400 radio shows on drug policy. Thornton has spoken to over 300,000 people in some 450 venues about the drug war as it relates to health, economics, race, class, and white privilege. Efficacy is partially responsible for the removal of D.A.R.E. from the Ocean City, NJ school system in 2001. Thornton gave a presentation to the board of education that received great reviews and helped facilitate its demise.  Thornton taught a graduate-level course, "Illegal Drugs and Public Policy" at Trinity College in Hartford, CT in 2002.  

 

"Cliff Thornton is one of the true heroes of the growing movement to stop the drug war and promote more rational policies," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.  "He's a role model for all those who believe in the moral imperative of speaking truth to power."

 

The award is named after Robert C Randall, who pioneered the medical marijuana issue in America. He was a model citizen who took on the federal government and assisted in the defense of people accused of criminal offenses involving marijuana. In receiving treatment for glaucoma, Randall became the first medical marijuana patient in the United States. After winning his case against the federal government, Mr. Randall continued to fight for others in need as founder and representative of the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics. In the early 1990s, he also founded the Marijuana AIDS Research Service, intended to help place AIDS patients in programs and studies that administer medical marijuana. This service's closure was a driving force in the adoption of California's Proposition 215, the first medical marijuana ballot initiative.

 

Past awardees include, Allan Clear, executive director of the Harm Reduction Coalition; Mikki Norris, Chris Conrad, and Virginia Resner, authors of Shattered Lives: Portraits from America's Drug War and founders of Human Rights 95, Cannabis Consumers, and Green-Aid; Randy Credico, activist for the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice, Inc.; Nora Callahan, executive director of The November Coalition; 1996 Joyce Rivera, founder of St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction, a needle exchange program and center in the Bronx, NY; Dennis Peron, author of Proposition 215 and founder of San Francisco Cannabis Buyers' Club; Edith Springer, clinical director of the New York Peer AIDS Education Coalition; Jack Herer, activist and author of The Emperor Wears No Clothes: Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy; Louis Jones, founder of STANDUP Harlem, Inc. ; and Julie Stewart, founder and president of Families Against Mandatory Minimums 

 

Efficacy
PO Box 1234
860 657 8438
Hartford, CT 06143
efficacy at msn.com<mailto:efficacy at msn.com>
www.Efficacy-online.org<http://www.efficacy-online.org/>
 
"THE DRUG WAR IS MEANT TO BE WAGED NOT WON"

Working to end race and class drug war injustice, Efficacy is a non profit
501 (c) 3 organization founded in 1997. Your gifts and donations are tax
deductible
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