MAP is unique among drug policy reformer websites. Nothing else comes
close for the job it is intended to do.

Any hour of any day I can glimpse world news and opinion about
'drugs'... always current and always reliable. If I have a few minutes
to spare and feel like writing, I know just to click on 'drug news'
and see lots of choices for writing letters, with contact info and
related articles. If I find news or opinion I feel strongly about, I
can send my letter -- slightly edited -- to many papers. If I need a
particular name, date, place for an event from the past, they are
there too, and becoming more valuable as the archive grows. The
archive is useful to verify facts before sending letters to my elected
people, in composing talks for civic groups, things like that. Very
important for me to know that what I say and write is accurate.

Since I am in Florida and on the www.dpffl.org elist, I automatically
receive articles related to Florida. This 'tickler' is the icing on
the cake. I use it to write letters to papers in my own state, where,
IMO, the odds of acceptance are higher than writing to out of state
papers. Since I am pretty busy with www.november.org so I value the
time-effectiveness of MAP. Never would I write so many letters if I
had to hunt down news articles on my own.

So what should be MAP's role for the future? Two areas, I
think:

First, given the proliferation of 24/7 wide-band media these days. How
can we best be heard amid the cacophony of voices? One thing I'd like
- - it may already be in place but I don't know of it - is a way respond
quickly to a report seen on the local news. Need to counter the stuff
sent at taxpayers expense to local TV media outlets cheerleading the
status quo.

The second area for improvement is enlightenment of the hinterlands.
This is tough because smalltown rural America has little interest in
enlightenment from the outside. Few articles are published critical of
the status quo, hence few opinions submitted. Add to that their 'us'
and 'them' mentality vis a vis outsiders. Unless you have lived it,
you cannot appreciate it. But these places always have a few
free-thinking individuals who will step up to the plate, even at
personal risk, who need to know they are not alone. These places are
important to fix local repression and, equally important, to spread
their stories worldwide. Widen the debate so as to end the hypocrisy,
the societal destruction and the wasted resources of drug
prohibition.

John Chase

johnc@november.org

727 787 3085

Palm Harbor, FL

Advisor, www.november.org

Secretary, www.uudpr.org