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In Memoriam
Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, local, anti-Japanese bigots chased him like a dog, he wrote, teaching him early in life how propaganda can train people to hate. As a marijuana advocate, Dr. Mikuriya used that understanding to help persecuted people fight back against the drug's demonization. He fought the good fight for many years, and everyone who wants drug policy to be based on reality, not propaganda, mourns his passing.
She joined with thousands of people demanding closure of the terrorist-training School of Americas in Georgia (USA), and in 1997 she served a six-month prison sentence at FCI Pekin for trespassing on the School's Ft. Benning base. Sister Rita was recognized worldwide for her contributions to social justice. In November Coalition's early years Rita encouraged Nora Callahan through long hours, day and night, of letter writing to prisoners of the drug war.
Share helped found The Herbivores, a rockin' reggae band headlined annually at Hempfest. Before crowds of thousands, she played bass and sang with this very popular Pacific Northwest musical group. Memorial: San Francisco Drug War Activist Virginia ResnerLong-time San Francisco drug policy, medical marijuana, and human rights activist Virginia Resner died July 18 in her home town following a lengthy struggle with breast cancer. She was 60 years old.
Tormented by the plight of women and families torn apart by harsh drug war practices, Resner became the California state director of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. In that position, she played a key role in the effort to obtain presidential clemency for Amy Pofahl, who had served nine years of a 24-year sentence for a drug trafficking offense. Pofahl was granted clemency by President Bill Clinton in 2000. Resner also joined up with East Bay marijuana activists Mikki Norris and Chris Conrad in creating the traveling "Human Rights and the Drug War" exhibit, which featured photos of various drug war prisoners, their families, and information about their cases. That effort eventually produced a book, coauthored by Resner, Norris, and Conrad, "Shattered Lives: Portraits from America's Drug War." Resner received the 2001 Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen Action from the Drug Policy Alliance for her efforts on the book. Most recently, Resner was president of Green Aid: The Medical Marijuana Legal Defense and Education Fund, where she was intimately involved in the legal struggles of "Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal. Despite her struggles with cancer, she managed to attend his court hearings and handle administrative items for his defense. She will be missed. -- Source: Drug War Chronicle |
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We honor and
remember Dr. Tod Mikuriya, who died at age 73 on May 21,
2007. Dr. Mikuriya was a prominent psychiatrist and advocate
for the legal and medical use of marijuana. After a short 1960's
career with the federal government, he practiced psychiatry in
California and helped create and coordinate cannabis buyers'
clubs in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2000 he founded the 
Sister
Rita Steinhagen (1928-2006) is
remembered as a steadfast advocate for the poor and downtrodden.
She established houses for runaway youth, and is a founder of
Hope Community, a model of inner city renewal in Minneapolis.
Share Parker (1951-2007) will be remembered fondly by her many
friends who annually organize 
The daughter
of a labor attorney, whom she credited with inspiring her activism
and devotion to justice, Resner joined the drug reform cause
in the early 1990s after being exposed first-hand to its ravages.
One day in 1991, Resner came home from work to find federal agents
searching her home for evidence to use against her companion,
Steven Faulkner, who had been involved in a plan to sell drugs.
Faulkner ended up with a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence
as a first-time, nonviolent drug offender, and Resner's career
as an activist was off and running.