The Drug Policy Forum of Texas

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Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Speakers’ Bureau

DPFT’s goal is to promote open debate and discussion about how to have a more effective, less costly drug policy. We have outstanding speakers across Texas who help us do this.

In the Southeast Texas area:

Jerry Epstein is a co-founder of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas. Jerry is a retired businessman who has extensively researched drug policy options and published numerous articles on the subject.

William Martin has chaired the Sociology Department at Rice University and is a Senior Fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Bill has written six books, including A Prophet with Honor: The Billy Graham Story and My Prostate and Me: Dealing with Prostate Cancer, and more than 150 articles. He has given hundreds of talks about religion and various public policy issues, including drug abuse and drug policy.

Carl Veley is a retired petroleum engineer and management consultant. He lived for several years in various Middle Eastern, European and Asian countries and has observed a spectrum of drug control policies ranging from unrestricted distribution to total prohibition. Carl is a DPFT board member whose essays on drug policy have been published widely, including the Wall Street Journal.

In the Central Texas area:

Craig Schroer is a reference librarian at the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. He brings his skills as an information professional to the field of drug policy reform where he has served on the DPFT board. He is keenly interested in the disconnect between evidence-based drug policy and the punitive model which continues to prevail.

Michael J. Gilbert, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He teaches a course titled “Drugs, Drug Laws and Crime.” Before joining the university faculty, Dr. Gilbert had over 20 years of experience in corrections and criminal justice. Working with offenders and justice system officials he became aware of the adverse consequences of the “war on drugs”. He began to question the validity, morality, and practicality of drug prohibition. The more he studied the problem the less prohibition made sense. Mike also represents Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, www.leap.cc

In the North Texas area:

Dr. Rodney Pirtle holds numerous degrees including one from Perkins School of Theology at SMU. He is retired from Highland Park ISD where he became aware that kids can get illicit drugs from the black market easier than they can get beer. He has devoted years to determining how we can do better. Rod is the recipient of a “Distinguished Service Award” from Highland Park ISD. He is a past president of DPFT.

Suzanne Wills is a retired CPA.Suzanne graduated from SMU and for 16 years had her own practice in east Dallas. She 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.” It is accompanied with a Power Point slide show. It can be presented in from 18 to 45 minutes or as two separate talks.

In the West Texas area:

Alan and Nancy Bean (shown with daughter, Lydia) spent twenty years serving Baptist and Methodist congregations in Western Canada, Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas. They moved to Tulia with their three children in 1998. In the wake of the infamous Tulia drug sting Alan helped found Friends of Justice, a criminal justice reform organization. Alan served as President of DPFT in 2004.

Keith Jones is an Elder Lawyer in Amarillo. He has practiced law since 1975, first in Dallas and since 1979 in Amarillo. He is member of Amarillo Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, and a longtime volunteer and board member for High Plains Public Radio and the Amarillo Better Business Bureau, among other
organizations.

Rev. Charles Kiker was born and grew up in the Tulia area. He earned degrees from Wayland Baptist College and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. After a 40 year career Dr. Kiker retired in Tulia in 1999, just before the infamous Tulia drug sting. The injustice of that event led this socially conservative Baptist minister to the drug policy reform movement. Charles has been a valued member of the DPFT since 2000.

Contact Suzanne Wills to schedule a speaker for your group.

suzy at dpft.org or 214-324-1594 in Dallas, 877-667-1888 toll free