PRESENTATION AT INTERNET WORKSHOP DURING LINDESMITH-DRUG POLICY FOUNDATION
CONFERENCE

http://www.drugsense.org/

Lady's and gentlemen we have some spectacular news and ideas to share with
you here today. I hope to not only demonstrate that we are, in fact,
winning the battle to end the decades old fiasco we refer to as the war on
drugs, but to give you some valuable tools and ideas that you can take home
to your various groups and organizations that will enable you to become
more effective in achieving our mutual objectives.

I also hope to demonstrate how the Internet has leveled the playing field
between drug war advocates and those supporting sensible change.

That's a pretty tall order to pull off in 15 minutes so let's get to it.

The Internet has, for the first time ever, enabled the average citizen to
become aware and informed on nearly any topic or issue, and electronic
communications has enabled very diverse groups and movements to begin to
communicate, cross pollinate information, and even to join forces and begin
cooperative ventures on appropriate projects.

Worldwide nearly 400 million people currently have access to the web and
the number is growing rapidly. Nearly a third of all U.S. and Canadian
citizens currently have access to the Internet. By 2002 it is likely that
more than two thirds will be web capable.

http://www.webpagefusion.com/stat.htm

Drug policy reform has taken advantage of the unprecedented growth of this
powerful medium in ways that none of us could have ever imagined just 5 or
6 years ago.

Led by a number of forward looking groups, the reform movement has
positioned itself as a leader in both providing information via the web and
activating diverse and far flung groups in numerous ways.

http://www.drugsense.org/webpop/bar.htm

The chart you see on the screen was developed using a number of independent
services such as Webtrends and Marketleap. These services offer a reliable
method of determining relative website popularity. Time won't allow me to
go into the details of how these reports were generated but we have
developed a web page that goes into all the detail. Anyone interested in
the methodology, please grab one of my business cards or a brochure after
the meeting and email me a request and I'll be happy to provided a web page
address. Suffice it to say here that we are absolutely confident in the
accuracy of these reports.

As you can see, organizations like DrugSense, MAP, and DRCNet, who are
almost exclusively Internet focused, have achieved some impressive results
in the relative popularity of their web sites. Other organizations like The
Lindesmith Center Drug Policy Foundation are less engaged in Internet
development due to their focus on other important activities, but they have
still demonstrated really impressive popularity when compared to gigantic
multi billion dollar organizations who support existing drug policy. It's
surprising but true, for example, that The Lindesmith Center - Drug Policy
Foundation web sites out perform the multi billion dollar Drug Enforcement
Administration for relative web site popularity and number of visitors
despite a minuscule relative budget.

Perhaps even more amazing the DrugSense/MAP sites combine to receive nearly
3 million hits a month and attract more visitors than The Office of
National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) The Partnership for a Drug Free
America, The Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) and DARE
combined. No site supporting existing policy even comes close to the
DrugSense/MAP sites for relative popularity and number of visitors.

Now for the real shocker. In generating this Web site popularity analysis
we analyzed every significant drug policy reform organization web site and
compared them to all major prohibition based web sites.

http://www.drugsense.org/webpop/pie.htm

To our amazement and delight, it turns out that the reform movement
collaboratively is beating the prohibitionists and by a fairly hefty
margin. Give yourselves a big hand folks.

Let me say that again. Reform collectively BEATS the "billion dollar big
boy drug warriors" on the web. The ramifications of this are pretty
amazing. Where can we say anything similar in all the long decades that we
have been fighting this battle? It is not an overstatement to say that it
appears that David is in the process of slaying Goliath. Thanks to the
Internet we ARE indeed winning.

How and why could this be you may be wondering. It's really pretty simple.
Truth Sells. Inaccuracy, hyperbole, and rhetorical nonsense doesn't. :0)

http://www.csdp.org/ads/pinocchio.htm

All major reform organizations on the Internet have one thing in common.
They are fastidious about providing accurate and scientifically valid
information. In other words we tell the truth and the other side does not.
The public has come to realize this and visits the sites that can be relied
upon for accuracy.

These facts clearly demonstrate that the web is empowering activists and
educating the public like nothing in history. The amount and quality of
valuable information and resources available to activists, the media, and
the public has become very impressive indeed. And we have only just begun
to scratch the surface in taking full advantage of the potential of this
resource for bringing about needed change.

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/

Web pages like the Drug War Facts collection, assembled by Common Sense for
Drug Policy and hosted by DrugSense, is another very good example of valid
reliable information available to the entire reform movement. This in depth
collection of facts and citations makes virtually any activist into an
instant genius when involved in letter writing, radio talk shows, debates,
speaking engagements, TV appearances or any public appearance. And it's
available for free to anyone in the world in a couple of seconds. I never
do a radio talk show anymore, for example without having this web site up
and running.

http://www.mapinc.org/

So how can you more effectively utilize all these tools to help your groups
become better equipped to fight the good fight?

First and foremost if your group doesn't have an Internet development
program, get one. If you already have one commit to utilizing it more
effectively as you will hopefully learn to do here today.

Volunteers are accomplishing a very large portion of what is being
accomplished in the drug policy reform arena today. Working with,
motivating and developing volunteers can be a challenging undertaking but
given the realities of our under funded movement, it is a necessary
component to our success. We obviously don't have the resources to hire
hundreds of NewsHawks or thousands of letter writers, for example, and I'm
really not sure we would be producing a better product if we did.

The web enables easy communications among large numbers of geographically
separated activists and potential volunteers. There are numerous ways to
find reform minded individuals to join your group via the Internet. These
include chat rooms, user groups, web searches, and email lists as just few
examples.

Once you begin attracting potential activists it's all important to insure
that they are provided with easy methods of getting active in ways that
make them feel that they are accomplishing something worthwhile and that
fits both their particular personality and objectives. Email lists are a
great way to encourage, acknowledge, and train your group.

We have very few rules on DrugSense supported lists but one rule always
applies. Compliment in public and criticize in private if at all. Bragging
rights, a sense of accomplishing something important, and acknowledgement
for their efforts are the only rewards a volunteer receives. I am a big
proponent of being very generous with praise and encouragement when working
with volunteers.

http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm

Utilizing these methods, and word of mouth advertising, DrugSense has
managed to attract about 20,000 individuals to become involved. They are
engaged in a wide array of activities ranging from simply reading our
weekly newsletter to NewsHawking articles on drug policy for the DrugNews
Archive.

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/

A very important aspect of motivating our activists is the letter writing
project. Thanks to hundreds of organized NewsHawks, we have archived nearly
60,000 news articles. All are fully searchable on any drug policy topic
thus creating both a historical archive of drug policy developments as well
as a very powerful information resource.

Due to the magic of the Internet and the efforts of some very talented and
hard working staff members, these articles are collected and distributed
within hours of publication on a daily basis. Nearly all the news articles
we archive include the email addresses of the newspaper that published the
article.

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n880/a04.html

This allows activists to respond to any article via a letter to the editor
or op-ed quickly and easily. Letter writing may be the single most
effective activity that virtually anyone engaged in any aspect of drug
policy reform can be involved in. It costs nothing, can be engaged in at
any convenient time, and requires little training.

Activists worldwide have become involved in this as a method of both
influencing the media and, when letters are published, educating the
public. To date MAP volunteer letter writers have had nearly 6,000 letters
to the editor published.

These are, in essence, small advertisements on behalf of drug policy
reform. The published letters archive currently represents about $6 million
in advertising value.

http://www.mapinc.org/lte/

Perhaps more important, these letters have had a major influence on the
editorial content of the print media. These letters have helped to
influence and educate the editorial boards of newspapers nationwide. For
those who follow drug news closely it is quite obvious that over the last
five years a sea change has developed in the editorial views of most major
newspapers. Five years ago it was difficult to find a pro-reform article.
Today it is difficult to find one that supports the drug war.

Our near future objectives will also enable activists of any organization
to begin to have a similar impact on local and national broadcast media.
With the help and cooperation of groups like yours we will soon be
contacting and educating corporations, politicians and other targets of
influence as well. All we lack is enough active volunteer manpower to
address the myriad of potential targets.

So how does this all effect you and the organizations represented in this
room? Every organization represented at this conference can and should
implement a plan to begin engaging in on-line media activism. The good news
is that you don't have to expend much of your limited resources to get the
ball rolling. DrugSense stands ready to supply all the technical
assistance, and infrastructure you need. Upon request we will set your
organization up with a free email list so that all your members can begin
easily communicating, organizing, and sharing ideas.

We will also set you up with a starter web page, if needed, to outline your
organizations objectives and to help keep members involved and informed.

If you are already set up with these items we can augment the impact and
popularity of your web site by adding a daily news feed of articles that
address the specific issues or geography appropriate for your group and
feed it to your web page or even to your email list.

For example we recently completed a cooperative effort with NORML to
provide a news feed for their web page predicated upon marijuana issues. We
can offer similar services for nearly any reform group.

http://www.norml.org

We can also offer additional support by means of information resources to
help teach your members how to engage in various forms of media activism.

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

DrugSense and other Internet groups have already set up the infrastructure.
The tools already exist and our methods are proven. What is needed now,
more than anything else, is a cooperative effort among all reform oriented
groups to insure that memberships are aware of these tools and using the
ones best suited to them.

I encourage all those interested in any aspect drug policy reform to begin
using the tools I have outlined here today. Take a brochure and get in
touch with us to further discuss how we can help you to help reform.

In closing I would like to repeat a little exercise some of you will
remember from last years conference. It makes a great point about synergy
and working together as well as to demonstrate how and why we are in fact
winning.

First I'd like to acknowledge some of the key people who make this endeavor
a success. As I call your name would you please stand and remain standing.
I'll ask the audience to hold your applause for the moment.

Matt Elrod The DrugSense Webmaster, Richard Lake DrugNews senior editor,
Tom O'Connell DrugSense Weekly Newsletter senior editor, Jo-D Dunbar
Membership Development coordinator, Mark Petersen E-mail list management
specialist. Please remain standing.

Now I'd like to ask all those who consider themselves DrugSense or MAP
volunteers including NewsHawks, or anyone who has ever helped us by sending
in news articles, any letter writers or others who consider themselves
involved as DrugSense volunteers to please stand. Finally I'll ask that
anyone in the room who has benefited from using the DrugSense news archive,
received web or E-mail support from DrugSense or MAP or has otherwise
benefited from the existence of DrugSense or MAP to stand

Folks this is why we are in fact winning this battle. You're looking at the
future of reform and you're looking at why we are all winners. Please give
yourselves a big hand

Thank you