Over 750 people from across the world attended the two hour memorial service via social media for activist Kevin Zeese, who suddenly passed away in his sleep on Sept. 6, 2020 at the age of 64.

Activists and friends described aspects and contributions of his exceptional life and contributions to a variety of reform movements.

Sadly we report on the premature death of our beloved co-founder, Kevin B. Zeese. Kevin passed away on Sept. 5, 2020.

Kevin was one of the nation's foremost authorities on drug policy issues. He worked on a wide array of drug related issues since he graduated from George Washington University Law School in 1980.

In the past few years, there have been drops in the correctional population as a whole as well as drops in the incarceration rate. There have also been changes in the reported racial and ethnic demographics of the people in prison in the US. Unfortunately some of the statistics and analysis floating around can be misleading, especially when only some selected data are shown and presented out of context.

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine is also known by its initials: MDMA, though it's better known to the public as Ecstasy. MDMA was first synthesized in the early 1900s in Germany, and began to be used in psychotherapy in the 1970s. In 1985 the Drug Enforcement Administration banned it, placing MDMA into Schedule One. A number of therapists and researchers feel that the DEA is wrong, and that the current schedule of drugs is based largely on misinformation, misunderstanding, and prejudice. One researcher who has been working for the past few decades to prove that MDMA is in fact a useful therapeutic drug is Rick Doblin.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy, (the Drug Czar's office), is required by law to produce an annual national drug control strategy report. Their deadline is supposed to be February 1st each year. The last annual strategy report was released in July of 2014. The federal fiscal year ended on September 30th, so for the feds, 2015 is over. To find out how the Drug Czar's office is doing, CSDP Research Director Doug McVay spoke with Sanho Tree, of the Institute for Policy Studies, in an interview recorded for public radio KBOO 90.7FM in Portland, Oregon.