Thomas Nicholson is a health educator and drug policy specialist. [1] He was reportedly included on President Obama's shortlist of candidates for the appointment as the nation's "drug czar" and was endorsed for the position by numerous public health groups. [2] He has coordinated the DRUGNET Study, an on-line survey of adult drug users. [3]
He earned his M.P.H. in at the University of Texas School of Public Health and his Ph.D. in at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. [4] He also earned an M.A.Ed. in counseling from Western Kentucky University. [4]
The University of Kentucky is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state's two land-grant universities and the institution with the highest enrollment in the state, with 30,545 students as of fall 2019.
Jon B. Gettman is a marijuana rights activist, a leader of the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis, and a former head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. He has a PhD in public policy and regional economic development from George Mason University and is a longtime contributor to High Times magazine. Gettman filed a petition in 1995 to remove cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act that was eventually denied. A second petition was filed in 2002, with the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis, that remains under review by the Department of Health and Human Services. Gettman frequently publishes on the marijuana industry and teaches public administration at Shepherd University in West Virginia.
Loma Linda University (LLU) is a private Seventh-day Adventist health sciences university in Loma Linda, California. As of 2019, the university comprises eight schools and the Faculty of Graduate Studies offers more than 100 degree and certificate programs. LLU also offers distance education. It is a part of the Seventh-day Adventist education system. The university is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Its on-campus church has around 7,000 members. Loma Linda Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist K–12 school, is located nearby.
Peter Roger Breggin is an American psychiatrist and critic of shock treatment and psychiatric medication and Covid-19 response. In his books, he advocates replacing psychiatry's use of drugs and electroconvulsive therapy with psychotherapy, education, empathy, love, and broader human services.
Kevin Bruce Zeese was an American lawyer, U.S. Senate candidate and political activist. He worked to end the war on drugs and mass incarceration, and was instrumental in organizing the 2011 Occupy encampment in Washington, D.C. at Freedom Plaza and occupying the Venezuelan Embassy in the District of Columbia. He co-founded the news site PopularResistance.org in 2011 with his partner, Margeret Flowers. Zeese died of a heart attack on September 6, 2020.
Ethan A. Nadelmann is the founder of the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York City-based non-profit organization working to end the War on Drugs. Described by Rolling Stone as, "The driving force for the legalization of marijuana in America," Ethan Nadelmann is known as a high-profile, divisive critic and commentator on U.S. and international drug control policies.
Kristine Moore Gebbie is an American academic and public health official working as a professor at the Flinders University School of Nursing & Midwifery in Adelaide, Australia. Gebbie previously served as the AIDS Policy Coordinator from 1993 to 1994.
The Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), formerly Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit group of current and former police, judges, prosecutors, and other criminal justice professionals who use their expertise to advance drug policy and criminal justice solutions that enhance public safety. The organization is modeled after Vietnam Veterans Against the War. As of April 2017, they have more than 180 representatives around the world who speak on behalf of over 5,000 law enforcement members and 100,000 supporters.
Boyd Eugene Haley is a retired professor of chemistry at the University of Kentucky.
Billy Clyde Gillispie, also known by his initials BCG and Billy Clyde, is an American college basketball and current men's basketball coach at Tarleton State. Gillispie had previously been head coach at UTEP, Texas A&M, Kentucky, and Texas Tech.
The Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) is an American 965-bed hospital with campuses in New Brunswick, and Somerville, New Jersey, and serves as a flagship hospital of RWJBarnabas Health.
The University of Kentucky College of Medicine is a medical school based in Lexington, KY at the University of Kentucky's Chandler Medical Center.
James Wilson Holsinger Jr., is an American physician. A former major general in the U.S. Army Reserve, he has worked primarily in public health for over thirty years. He served as the Under Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Health from 1990 to 1993, during the administrations of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. From 1994 to 2003, Holsinger was the Chancellor of the University of Kentucky's Chandler Medical Center. From 2003 to 2005 he served as Kentucky's Secretary of Health and Family Services.
The Federal Medical Center, Lexington is a United States federal prison in Kentucky for male or female inmates requiring medical or mental health care. It is designated as an administrative facility, which means that it holds inmates of all security classifications. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. The facility also has an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp for female inmates.
Case Western Reserve School of Medicine is the medical school of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. It is the largest biomedical research center in Ohio.
Richard Gil Kerlikowske is a former Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. He assumed office on March 6, 2014 and retired January 20, 2017. He also served as the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy between 2009 and 2014.
Michael P. Botticelli is an American public health official who served as the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) from March 2014 until the end of President Obama's term. He was named acting director after the resignation of Gil Kerlikowske, and received confirmation from the United States Senate in February 2015. Prior to joining ONDCP, he worked in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Following completion of his service as ONDCP Director, he became the executive director of the Grayken Center for Addiction Medicine at the Boston Medical Center.
Brett P. Giroir is an American pediatrician and a former four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. He currently serves on the board of directors for Remote Area Medical, and as the chief medical advisor for Gauss Surgical. He previously served as the 16th assistant secretary for health during the Trump administration from February 15, 2018, to January 19, 2021. He concurrently served as the secretary's principal public health and science adviser, the senior adviser for the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as well as the senior adviser to the secretary for Opioid Policy. From 2020 to 2021, he served additionally as the director of the U.S. coronavirus diagnostic testing, and as the U.S. representative on the World Health Organization Executive Board. As COVID-19 testing czar, he was part of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Rahul Gupta is an American physician from the state of West Virginia. He is the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and the first physician to serve in the role.