July

13th -  GSE Team

July 13th: GSE Team

Rotary's Group Study Exchange (GSE) program is a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for business people and professionals between the ages of 25 and 40 who are in the early stages of their careers. The program provides travel grants for teams to exchange visits in paired areas of different countries. For four to six weeks, team members experience the host country's culture and institutions, observe how their vocations are practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships and exchange ideas.

The original team consisted of Larissa Vogelaar (Dallas), Sara Skinner (Liberty, Missouri), Mike Pugh (Tulsa), Angela Chambers (Red Oak) and Lauren Clark (Carrollton)

July 6th: Suzy Wills, Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Suzanne Wills is a board member and treasurer of DPFT and Drug Policy Chair of the League of Women Voters of Dallas. Her talk is entitled "Drug War: How We Got Into This Mess and the Special Interests That Keep Us Here." She told us how narcotics became illegal in 1914 and the murder rate rose, how in 1920 alcohol became illegal and the murder rates soared. Then Cannabis (marijuana) became illegal.

Today, Suzy told us there are more arrests for non-violent drug offenses than any other offense. The Dutch teenages, where marijana is not outlawed, use marijana at half the rates of Americans. The Netherlands closed 8 prisions. The Dutch said they made using drugs boring. My favorite part of her speech is when she said if Social Security benefits increased at the same rate as spending on the war on drugs the monthly check would be $35,000 per month. I could retire on that.

An interesting fact in her presentation is that 51.6% of federal prisoners in 2010 were non-violent drug law violators. As of August 2009 19% of Texas inmates were non-violent drug law violators.

For more information go to www.dpft.org