My first experience with the Drug Policy Alliance (other than being a fan) was during the 2012 Attorney General race in Oregon. Jay Smoker and I had been working with our friends Jim Greig and Oregon SSDP to try to keep anti-medical marijuana candidate Dwight Holton from winning. Dwight Holton was ahead in the polls by roughly 7 points at the time, despite the fact that he wasn’t from Oregon. Dwight Holton had an endorsement from just about every large media outlet in Oregon, and was heavily backed by local law enforcement.
After I was called out in my state’s largest media source, I called Tony Newman from the Drug Policy Alliance in a desperate attempt to try to get them involved in the race. I assured them that I could use my social media skills to bring national attention to the race (which I did!), but that Mr. Holton’s opponent Ellen Rosenblum needed some campaign donations ASAP. The Drug Policy Alliance came through big time, and by the end of the race Dwight Holton was defeated by a landslide.
This is just one example out of many of what the Drug Policy Alliance is doing across the United States. They are helping Oregon again with it’s legalization efforts in 2014, have been working very hard to legalize medical marijuana in New York, and have a lot of plans for 2016. If this sounds like something that you would be interested in, I encourage you to consider applying for some of their open positions/internships, which are posted below:
Jobs
California
New York
Washington, DC
Internships
California
New York
- Audiovisual Digitization Internship
- Communications Intern
- Development Intern
- Event Intern
- Internet Communications Internship
- Media Intern
- Movement Building Policy Intern
- Public Policy and Advocacy Intern
Washington, DC
