NORML Canada’s National Conference

John W. Conroy, Q.C.

Mr. Conroy is a Barrister and Solicitor who graduated from the University of British Columbia Law School in 1971 and was called to the Bar of British Columbia in 1972. He has his own law firm, Conroy & Company, based in Abbotsford, British Columbia and his practice is primarily as Defence counsel in criminal matters with an additional focus on sentencing and post-sentencing matters which involves an extensive administrative law and constitutional law practice. From 1975 – 1980 he was the Director of Abbotsford Community Legal Services. From 1980 – 1990 he was the Director of British Columbia Prison Legal Services. He was the Chairman of the Committee on Corrections & Institutions of the Canadian Bar Association (B.C. branch) from 1978-1979. He was a Member and then Chair, CBA National Task Force on Imprisonment and Release from 1985 – 1988. He was the Chairman of the Committee on Imprisonment and Release of the National Criminal Justice Section of the Canadian Bar Association from 1988 to 2001. He is a Member of the Board of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law. In 1992 Mr. Conroy was awarded the Commemorative Medal for the 125th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation for significant contributions to Canada, community and fellow Canadians. In January 1996 Mr. Conroy was appointed Queen’s Counsel.

Alan N. Young

Alan Young is Co-Founder and Director of Osgoode’s Innocence Project, which is a clinical program that guides JD students through the process of investigating suspected cases of wrongful conviction and imprisonment. He also maintains a small practice specializing in criminal law and procedure that is primarily devoted to challenging state authority to criminalize consensual activity.

He has brought constitutional challenges to our gambling, obscenity, bawdy-house and drug laws, and for nearly two decades has provided free legal services to those whose alternative lifestyles have brought them into conflict with the law. He has represented countless numbers of people suffering from AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis who were charged after using marijuana for medicinal purposes, and as a result of these cases, the Federal Government was compelled to create a regulatory program authorizing the use of medical marijuana. In addition to his work in the area of consensual crime, Professor Young has also provided free legal services to victims of violent crime and to individuals attempting to sue the government for malicious prosecution.

Canadian Lawyer magazine has recognized the contributions Professor Young has made to the law, and named him one of the “Top 25 Most Influential” in the justice system and legal profession in 2010, 2011 & 2012. He is the author of Justice Defiled: Perverts, Potheads, Serial Killers and Lawyers (Toronto: Key Porter, 2003).

Research Interests: Criminal Law & Procedure; Victims Rights; Police & Prosecutorial Misconduct; Wrongful Conviction.

Kirk Tousaw

Kirk Tousaw is a barrister and advocate for law reform. His primary practice areas are Medical Cannabis Regulatory Compliance, Cannabis Criminal Defence and Strategic Litigation.

In addition to the daily practice of law, Kirk advocates for law reform. He sits on the all-volunteer Board of Directors of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. He also sits on the Board of NORML Canada and the Sensible BC Society. Kirk drafted the Sensible Policing Act, a recent ballot initiative in BC that garnered more than 200,000 signatures.

Kirk began practicing law in 1998 in the United States. He has a background in business litigation, criminal defence, and social justice advocacy pursuant to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He has been a practicing member of the Law Society of British Columbia since 2005.

Academically, Kirk holds a Bachelor’s of Art in political philosophy (Michigan State University), a Juris Doctor, cum laude (Wayne State University School of Law) and a Master’s in Law (University of British Columbia Faculty of Law).

Kirk has written and spoken extensively on issues related to drug policy, privacy, religious freedom, and criminal justice policy. In addition, Kirk has had the privilege of testifying several times before the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights of the House of Commons and also before the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs.

R. Keith Stroup, J.D.

Mr. Keith Stroup is a Washington, DC public-interest attorney who founded NORML in 1970.

Stroup obtained his undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Illinois in 1965, and in 1968 he graduated from Georgetown Law School in Washington, DC. Following two years as staff counsel for the National Commission on Product Safety, Mr. Stroup founded NORML and ran the organization through 1979, during which 11 states decriminalized minor marijuana offenses. Stroup first smoked marijuana when he was a first-year law student at Georgetown and has been a regular smoker ever since.

Stroup has also practiced criminal law, lobbied on Capitol Hill for family farmers and artists, and for several years served as executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL).

In 1994 Stroup resumed his work with NORML, rejoining the board of directors and serving again as Executive Director through 2004. He currently serves as the organization’s Legal Counsel.

In 1992 Stroup was the recipient of the Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Drug Policy Reform presented by the Drug Policy Foundation; in 2010 he received the Al Horn Memorial Award from the NORML Legal Committee; and in 2012 he received the Dr. Lester Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award from High Times Magazine.

Eugene Oscapella

Mr. Oscapella completed undergraduate studies in economics at the University of Toronto in 1974 and received his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Ottawa in 1977. He obtained his Master of Laws degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1979. He was called to the Ontario Bar in 1980.

From 1980 to 81, Mr. Oscapella served as a commission counsel with the McDonald Commission of Inquiry into the RCMP and during his career has worked on five other major commissions of inquiry. From 1982 to 85, he was Director of Legislation and Law Reform for the Canadian Bar Association.

Mr. Oscapella was associated with the Law Reform Commission of Canada for over 14 years and was the first chairman of that body’s Drug Policy Group. He is a founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, an independent organization created in 1993 to examine Canada’s drug laws and policies. For several years he sat on the policy committee of the Canadian Criminal Justice Association and more recently sat on the steering and policy committees of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, formed in 2011.

He has appeared many times before Canadian parliamentary committees on drug policy issues, including the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs and the House of Commons Special Committee on the Non-medical Use of Drugs. He lectures on drug policy in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa and has also lectured and been published widely in Canada and abroad on drug policy issues. In April 2011, he received the Kaiser Foundation National Award for Excellence in Public Policy for his drug policy reform work.

Dana Larsen

Dana Larsen has been working in cannabis and drug policy reform for over two decades. Larsen was the founding editor of Cannabis Culture Magazine, co-founder of the Vancouver Seed Bank, and a founding member of the BC Marijuana Party. In 2012 Larsen was a candidate for the leadership of the BC NDP, and currently serves as Director of a number of non-profits, including the Vancouver Dispensary Society, the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries, and the Sensible BC campaign for a marijuana referendum. Larsen is the author of a few books, including Hairy Pothead and the Marijuana Stone.

Jodie Emery

Jodie Emery is the wife of Marc Emery, the infamous US-imprisoned Canadian marijuana activist and philanthropist seed seller. At 29 years old, she is a well-known marijuana legalization activist, political candidate and public spokesperson, and is also owner of Cannabis Culture Magazine, Pot TV, Marc Emery’s Cannabis Culture Headquarters store, and the BC Marijuana Party vapour lounge.

Often featured in newspaper, radio, and TV stories about marijuana prohibition and legalization, Jodie also speaks at rallies, conferences, and other events in Canada and the United States. She ran for office as a B.C. Marijuana Party candidate in 2005 and 2008, and was then asked to run as a B.C. Green Party candidate in 2009 and 2013. Jodie regularly visits her husband in Mississippi federal prison while managing nearly thirty employees and a growing activism business “hempire”.

Mykayla Comstock

Mykayla Comstock was diagnosed with intermediate risk T-Cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia on July 14th, 2012, at 7 years old. She is also Oregon’s youngest Medical Cannabis Patient. This is where her journey is chronicled for all to see.

Brave Mykayla Comstock wants to help change how childhood cancer is approached. Mykayla uses Cannabis as medicine. She began using Whole Extract Cannabis Oil to help her leukemia go into remission. Now she continues to use cannabis to help mitigate the debilitating effects of her required chemotherapy protocol, successfully. Mykayla and her family want to speak out, spread the word, raise awareness and let everyone know that Cancer Doesn’t Have to be So Scary!

Donald MacPherson

Donald MacPherson is currently the Director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition a national coalition of organizations and individuals working to improve Canada’s drug policies. He is the author of Vancouver’s groundbreaking Four Pillars Drug Strategy, which called for new approaches to drug problems based on public health principles and the appropriate regulation of all psychoactive substances. In 2007 he received the Kaiser Foundation National Award of Excellence in Public Policy in Canada. In 2009 he was awarded the Richard Dennis Drug Peace Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Drug Policy Reform by the Drug Policy Alliance in the United States. He is currently Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver Canada.

Gillian Maxwell

Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Gillian Maxwell is an experienced organiser, public speaker, coach and facilitator, committed to raising consciousness in individuals and organisations. She brings warmth and charisma to match a sophisticated and well-crafted rigour to public debate and dialogue.

Gillian is co-founder and executive member of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC), whose mission is to reform drug policies nationally and internationally, where she focuses her attention on community relations and fund development. Her training is in mediation and negotiation, and she is well known in British Columbia as the host and facilitator of a number of public forums at Simon Fraser University’s Wosk Centre for Dialogue, as well as a speaker on harm reduction initiatives at international conferences in the U.S. and Europe.

Over the past decade, she has arranged and conducted a number of tours and interviews with Vancouver’s harm reduction community for visiting delegations, which included government officials, politicians, researchers, public health workers and special knowledge exchange program participants from around the world.

Since 2000, she served as the project director of Keeping the Door Open: Dialogues on Drug Use (KDO), a community-based coalition organising dialogues on problematic substance use to educate the public and inform public policy in Vancouver, and was the spokesperson for the Campaign for Community Safety to advocate for the permanent status of INSITE, the internationally recognised supervised injection facility in Vancouver.

She has been a member of the Vancouver Police Board and a Trustee of AIDS Vancouver, and during the 2010 Winter Olympics brought SafeGames2010, a large-scale harm reduction initiative, to Vancouver’s Winter Olympic celebrations.

She is currently a member of the Advisory Board of MAPS Canada (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), and a proud recipient of the 2012 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.

Gillian works as a consultant with individuals and groups to discover their unique gifts and coaches them to fulfill their potential. She is a connector and a public speaker where she brings her extensive life experiences together to inspire and educate. Through her vast network established over many years of social activism and community work, Gillian Maxwell knows how to translate important ideas into significant action. She is the link between the individuals, the organisations and the decision makers who need to come together to effect change in the world.

A long-time resident of Strathcona, she lives happily with her beloved husband, Richard, their darling dog, Brandy, and is the proud step-mother of two grown children.

Kat Kolar

Kat Kolar is a PhD student at the Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, where she is completing the Collaborative Program in Addiction Studies. Her current research on drug normalization explores gender differences in cannabis use norms as well as the acceptability of student non-prescription stimulant use. She is also working as a research analyst on several projects in the areas of: sex work and policy; sexuality, sexual risk-taking, and HIV prevention; and resilience among marginalized groups. Follow her on twitter @katneverlies