The Sky is Falling II

Friends,

Three months ago, I posted an appeal for assistance, titled "The Sky is Falling", explaining that DRCNet was in the midst of a financial crisis and could not continue operating as a full-time, staffed organization without some emergency help from our friends, and that unlike the fictional "Chicken Little" character, the problem was not one of our imagining.

The response was unprecedented. Subscribers to this list sent us a total exceeding $4000, more than twice the record from our previous appeals. This much needed infusion of cash helped us pay our bills and employees and take our work to a higher level than ever before. In addition to the help from rank and file members, we received some short term support from some of the movement's major funders.

But most of the grants and major gifts we need to cover the bulk of our operating budget haven't come in yet, and we are again in the position we were in three months ago, perhaps worse. We don't have money to pay our phone bill or our payroll, Adam and I have lent DRCNet over a thousand dollars each, and there are other debts besides.

Despite the widely acknowledged, critical role we are playing in the reform effort, we are once again on the brink of shutdown, and cannot continue without relief. The sky is falling again, and we need your help.

A partial list of our achievements since January 14:

• Major articles on the DARE program having made substantial use of our DARE web site, including The New Republic's cover article "Don't You D.A.R.E". DRCNet's most unique contribution was bringing to light an incident in Friday Harbor, WA, where fanatical DARE supporters literally "pulled the plug" on a local CBS affiliate during a CBS news segment reporting on research findings that were critical of DARE. (See http://www.drcnet.org/DARE/censor.html)
• An article in Reason magazine by DRCNet Assistant Director Adam J. Smith, on the tragic case of Will Foster, a medical marijuana patient sentenced by the state of Oklahoma to 93 years in prison, and literally hundreds of letters supporting Foster on the District Attorney's desk (see our original action alert at http://www.drcnet.org/rapid/1997/2-6-1.html).
• Mobilizing grassroots support for The Xchange Point needle exchange program, threatened with prosecution by the City of Cleveland, getting a flood of letters into the mayor's office and helping the program overcome political resistance and resolve its difficulties. The Xchange Point is about to reopen, and the program's director, Ken Vail, said he doesn't believe it would have happened this soon without us.
• Multiple media appearances, including a half hour interview with DRCNet Director David Borden on Australian national radio and an hour interview on San Diego's big AM station, KSDO.
• Several important new sections of the DRCNet web site, including The Reformer's Calendar (http://www.drcnet.org/calendar.html), an up-to-date listing and archive of our rapid-response bulletins (http://www.drcnet.org/rapid/), a focus section on drug education (http://www.drcnet.org/pressnet/), a "quick-signup" form (http://www.drcnet.org/signup.html) that has caused our number of new subscribers to skyrocket to 15 daily, bringing our projected end of the year numbers to over 5000), and more.
• Providing needed support to activists in Virginia in their successful effort to preserve the state's medical marijuana law that was threatened with repeal.

If you value our work and want to see the horrors of the drug war brought to a stop, please take a moment to send what you can. We can't do it without you. You can donate by credit card using our online registration form at http://www.drcnet.org/drcreg.html. Your info will be encrypted every step of the way, but if you still don't trust the Internet with your credit card number over the net, you can call us at (202) 362-0030 or fax it to (202) 362-0032. Or send a check or money order to:

DRCNet
4455 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite B-500
Washington, DC 20008

We value your participation, whether or not you choose to contribute at this time. But remember, the government isn't asking you before it spends your tax dollars building prisons. Please, help us put a stop to the prison-building frenzy that sweeps the nation. Help us bring sanity to this troubled world.

Sincerely,

David Borden
Director
Drug Reform Coordination Network
http://www.drcnet.org

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