URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n538/a08.html
Newshawk: Help us Help Reform http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Pubdate: Wed, 01 May 2002
Source: HEADS
Copyright: 2002 Worldwide Heads, Inc.
Contact: editor@headsmagazine.com
Website: http://www.headsmagazine.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2061
Author: Tom O'Connell, M.D.
Note: Editorial input provided by Mark Greer, Matt Elrod, Richard Lake, and
Jo-D Dunbar
Also: A slightly longer version of this article which includes a few minor
updates made after it went to print is at http://www.drugsense.org/history.htm

DRUGSENSE AND THE MEDIA AWARENESS PROJECT ( MAP )

The History Of An Internet Activist Prototype

DrugSense and its largest endeavor, the Media Awareness Project ( MAP ) could be considered a prototypical Internet activist IT ( Information Technology ) organization it was planned, created, and put into operation at a time ( late 1996 ) when that acronym would have drawn blank stares from most. It was formed by principals in widely scattered geographical locations who, with but a single exception, were known to each other only through email.

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A reasonable place to begin MAP's story is the Ninth Drug Policy Foundation ( DPF ) Convention http://www.drugpolicy.org in Santa Monica in October 1995. Cliff Schaffer, creator of the original on-line drug library, Jim Rosenfield, creator of a similar library, and Dave Borden, founder of DRCNet, the original Internet drug policy reform organization, called an informal evening meeting for anyone with Internet access and an interest in on-line activism.

Two of those attending were Greer from Porterville, California, and O'Connell from San Mateo. Very much "newbies" to both reform and the Internet, they were intrigued by the possibilities being touted by the reform veterans so they signed up for DRCTalk, Borden's email discussion group as soon as they returned home. The months that followed were to be a heady time for the reform, which had been receiving little press recognition because the policy they opposed was so thoroughly taken for granted by the media.

That changed abruptly in February 1996 when The New Republic published a seminal editorial by William F. Buckley Jr. calling the drug war a failure and urging that our policy be radically overhauled. This provocative message from a staunch conservative produced a surge of media interest; many influential dailies cautiously endorsed Buckley's criticism to the extent that they agreed the previously sacrosanct policy should at least be re-examined.

In almost direct response to both Buckley's editorial and to a signal that Republicans would claim in the '96 Presidential Campaign that he was "soft" on drugs, Bill Clinton wasted little time. He persuaded the nearly invisible Lee Brown to step aside as drug czar in favor of the more charismatic Barry McCaffrey; thus guaranteeing that drug policy wouldn't lack media attention for the next five years.

So rapidly did Clinton respond that McCaffrey, resplendent in full uniform and seated next to Hillary in the gallery, was introduced as the nominee for drug czar during the State of the Union address later the same month.

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