Since a June 17, 2011 forum at the National Press Club, the Institute of the Black World 21st Century has engaged in the movement to end the “War on Drugs” with a War on the War on Drugs Campaign. IBW has organized major town hall meetings in Pittsburgh, Baltimore and D.C. and formed criminal justice/drug policy reform collaboratives in these cities to do follow-up, reaching some new constituencies in the African American community.

This new education/public awareness event is a forum on the international impact of the War on Drugs on people of African Descent — with a focus on African descendants from Central and South America and the Caribbean.

IPS Fellow and Director of IPS’ Drug Policy Project, Sanho Tree will be featured on a panel discussing the complexity of the issue including why U.S. is resistant to change even in the face of the conclusions of the Global Commission. Other panelists are Nicole Lee, Esq. -TransAfrica Forum, Gimena Sanchez – Wasthingon Office on Latin America, and Nkechi Taifa, Esq. – Open Society Foundations.

The conference will also identify representatives of African descendant populations from the Caribbean, Central and South America to serve as resource people to provide testimonials on the impact of the War on Drugs on African descendant people/communities.