 I'm going to get us into the meat of this program and begin by introducing someone who's not only a dear friend but has been a mentor and we've needed friends and mentors during these last two hard years. I'm talking about none other than Ira Glasser who I met the first week I was at DPA. Ira Glasser the former head of the ACLU and who has been our board chair since the moment we began as Drug Policy Alliance you know taught me many of the things and as I thought about this morning you know and everything we'd faced and I thought about all of you and all the partners I've worked for these last 13 years I've been lucky enough to be a part of this amazing organization. I thought one thing we were born for times like this we did our push-ups when we passed the first medical marijuana bill we got some cuts in our stomach and looked all cute in a six pack when we passed Proposition 64 right we did some leg presses when we passed Proposition 36 we built arm muscles when we ended the Rockefeller drug laws and broke the back of mandatory minimum sentencing we were born for times like this we were born and if they want to go low we're going to go hard we're not going to take one step back and with that I'm going to introduce the man who helped teach me that the one the only mr. doctor that's how I like to call him Ira Glasser. Thank you Asha and welcome again to our continuing relentless persistent journey towards justice equality liberty and an end an end to the war on drugs which we know is not a war on drugs but a war on people. Today we resume this journey with the progress that we celebrated two years ago undiminished undiminished and in fact enhanced by many initiatives and new laws that have passed since two years ago including one groundbreaking law signed by Governor Brown in California yesterday but if our progress is diminished is undiminished it is also true that the track we are running on has suddenly become perhaps unexpectedly become much more dangerous much more difficult and strewn with obstacles that we could not have imagined two years ago and we are shocked but we ought not to be surprised because we know we have always known that the run toward justice and human rights is always met with reaction and opposition and that each progress we make is met with that kind of reaction and that it is always our task and our destiny to resist that reaction when it comes and overcome it and we have done it before and we shall do it again but we know and we have always known that the the run toward justice and equality is not a sprint but a marathon that has become a cliche I know but it is no less true but it is not an ordinary marathon where you can see the finish line and you can reach it with a few hours of hard running our marathon is a giant relay race marathon we're requiring thousands of runners many of whom are in the room right now thousands of runners across many generations with a with the end is always beyond the horizon and we run that race with faith and resolve but as many runners as we have and as many runners as we need we always need a lead runner and earlier this year when our founding lead runner decided to step off the track he gave me this baton that he had been carrying with valor for so long and I said as my grandchildren always tell me I'm almost 80 years old why are you giving this to me although I can still outrun my grandchildren not for long but still and and we knew we knew at that moment that our our work was cut out for us we had to find a new lead runner and we also had to find a way to manage the transition while we were looking no easy task organizations and movements facing these kinds of transitions oh almost always find those transitions rocky and rough but ours has been smooth and ours has been smooth because first we found Derek Hodel there he is stand up Derek you know was a former deputy director of DPA was now living and working in Toronto and it was our good fortune to get him to come back for six months or more and help lead and manage the transition while we looked for a new lead runner and thanks to him and Tamar Todd and the DPA staff transition team and indeed the entire DPA staff we didn't miss a beat during these past six months and DPA has continued to run hard and continue to make progress and continue to be effective and for that we owe Derek and the DPA staff an enormous grit debt of gratitude so put your hands together so what were we looking for when we set out to find a new lead runner to give this to well we had an ambitious vision and everybody told us it was too ambitious but we envisioned somebody whose passion for and commitment to human rights in the context of drug policy reform was grounded in personal experience and in Maria McFarlane Sanchez Moreno who grew up and lived in Peru till she was 20 years old during a time of authoritarian government and paramilitary massacres and brutalizing drug laws we found such a person we envisioned someone who knew in her bones without being told that militarized police and repressive laws and drug cartels formed a toxic brew that we call the war on drugs and in Maria who was a young lawyer spent substantial amount of time on the ground in Colombia during its dark days we found such a person and Maria has written a book about her experiences in Colombia which will be out in February called there are no dead here which I recommend to you and we envisioned someone who knew up close in the United States how prohibitionist drug policies and racially discriminatory policing and brutally cruel and excessive criminal sentencing and also brutally cruel deportation policies all combined to target and tear apart persons and families of color and in Maria who headed up the U.S. program for human rights watch for many years we found such a person and finally but not least we envisioned a person with substantial leadership and managerial experience in a large complex organization which is what we have now become and in Maria who led and persuaded and moved human rights watch into the area of drug policy reform in the first place and then managed and led and sustained its program there for many years we found such a person and so it is with great confidence and unusual hope that I hand this baton to our new lead runner you're gonna have to run up here and I bid you I bid you give her a warm and enthusiastic welcome