300 WEEKS OF DRUGSENSE

Published continuously since 1997, DrugSense Weekly distributes its 300th
issue today.

DSW has evolved significantly from its first edition, which can be viewed
here http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/1997/ds97.n01.html

Issue 300 isn't radically different from issue 299 or 301, but everybody
loves a round number, so it's hard to resist this opportunity to reflect,
and to thank many collaborators.

We aim to offer a comprehensive sampling of the most interesting and
relevant drug policy news each week. It wouldn't be nearly as
comprehensive without the Media Awareness Project and its volunteers.

MAP is the primary conduit for news about drug policy - not only for DSW,
but for the whole drug policy reform movement. Hardworking newshawks and
editors ensure that the DrugSense Weekly staff have several hundred items
from which to choose for every issue. My fellow editors at DSW sift through
each seven-day batch to pick about two dozen articles we find to be most
crucial.

Philippe Lucas and Doug Snead utilize their wealth of knowledge about drug
policy to chose important articles and put them into context with
insightful comments. Matt Elrod exercises his keen news sense to pick late
breaking items for the "This Just In" section. Matt also selects most of
the "Hot Off The Net" items before formatting the whole newsletter for both
email and the web.

Our "Letter of the Week" feature, which includes a weekly vote among MAP
editors and DSW staff, is coordinated by Derek Rea. Richard Lake tabulates
"Letter Writer of the Month." And, until recently, Jo-D Harrison had been
recording the sadly defunct audio version of DSW.

The current staff was fortunate to inherit a solid format developed by Tom
O'Connell, the newsletter's longest serving editor, who cranked out about
180 issues of DrugSense Weekly during his tenure. During most of that time,
Tom did the bulk of the work on the newsletter with backup from Matt,
Richard, Jo-D and Mark Greer.

Tom Hawkins edited the first 30 issues or so. I've never met or
corresponded with him, but I applaud Tom for getting the ball rolling.

Finally, thanks to all the readers out there, particularly any who have
taken the time read this far. Good for you for continuing to follow the
news about the drug war, disturbing as it often is. I think I can speak for
the other staff in saying we know you can use the information from DSW to
work for positive change. We hope your efforts will lead to this
newsletter's redundancy before we put out another 300 issues.

If you ever have any comments, questions or criticisms regarding DrugSense
Weekly, please send them along - stephen@maximizingharm.com