DanceSafe National

Wendy Allison

Wendy is a New Zealand based harm reduction advocate who has been involved with harm reduction and drug policy reform since 2008. She has a history of event organisation and risk management, and has a multifaceted understanding of the issues associated with drug related harm reduction at events.

Over the last three years she has been instrumental in introducing substance checking at festivals and events in New Zealand, training a small team to use reagents and infrared spectroscopy, and sharing information with participants on drug related matters. She has also developed relationships with representatives from the NZ Drug Foundation, Ministry of Health, and the Drug Intelligence Bureau. This has allowed her to present data from testing to agencies, demonstrating its efficacy as a harm reduction measure. This work has raised awareness of substance checking and it is now gaining traction in the media, among the festival community, and with members of Parliament.

Her academic background is in Social Policy and Criminology, with a focus on drug policy and the impact of changes to the legislation surrounding psychoactive substances on the drug using community.

Betty Aldworth

Betty Aldworth became Executive Director of SSDP in February 2014 and has since led the organization through its most substantial growth: the member base and campuses on which SSDP is present have doubled; staff and offices supporting those members have tripled; global presence has quadrupled; and as a result the policy change and education efforts members are leading have grown immeasurably.

Since 2009, Betty has specialized in community outreach, public relations, advocacy, and policy reform as a consultant to or staffer for cannabis-related businesses and nonprofit organizations. She served as spokesperson and advocacy director for Colorado’s successful 2012 Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, the collaborative committee responsible for legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana for adults in Colorado, and was the Deputy Director of the National Cannabis Industry Association in 2013, the organization’s fastest year of growth. Prior to her work in marijuana policy and medical cannabis, she was a volunteer leadership professional with some of Denver’s most well-respected nonprofit organizations, ultimately leading a team of 4,000 volunteers who contributed over 40,000 hours of service annually.

Jag Davies

Jag has 15 years of professional experience working to establish drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights. As director of communications strategy at the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), where he has worked since 2009, Jag oversees the organization’s messaging, publications, and strategic communications. He is regularly quoted in a wide range of media outlets and his writings have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN.com, and dozens of regional and online outlets. Prior to DPA, Jag served as policy researcher for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Drug Law Reform Project (now known as the ACLU Criminal Law Reform Project) and as director of communications for the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He currently lives in New York City.

Rick Doblin

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He received his doctorate in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote his dissertation on the regulation of the medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana, and his Master’s thesis on a survey of oncologists about smoked marijuana vs. the oral THC pill in nausea control for cancer patients. His undergraduate thesis at New College of Florida was a 25-year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Timothy Leary’s Concord Prison Experiment. Rick studied with Dr. Stanislav Grof and was among the first to be certified as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner. His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise healthy people, and eventually to become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. He founded MAPS in 1986, and currently resides in Boston with his wife and one of three children (two in college).

Richard Gottlieb (Wolverine)

Richard Gottlieb, R.N., Founder of RGX Medical, has been a leader in providing compassionate medical and mental health services to the festival community for eight years. Richard has served as medical supervisor for the Burning Man Emergency Services Department since 2010 and is the Medical Lead for over 30 events a year including Lightning in a Bottle, Symbiosis Gathering, Envision Festival Costa Rica, Desert Hearts, and many more transformational events. His medical model is based on the principles of harm reduction with a focus on reducing unnecessary arrests and hospitalizations as well as closely collaborating with other harm reduction agencies such as The Zendo Project, DanceSafe, and The Drug Policy Alliance.

Carl Hart

Carl Hart is the Chair of the Department of Psychology at Columbia University. He is also the Dirk Ziff Professor of Psychology in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry. Professor Hart has published numerous scientific and popular articles in the area of neuropsychopharmacology and is co-author of the textbook Drugs, Society and Human Behavior (with Charles Ksir). His most recent book, “High Price: A Neuroscientist’s Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society,” was the 2014 winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Professor Hart has appeared on multiple podcasts, radio, and television shows including Real Time with Bill Maher and The O’Reilly Factor. He has also appeared in several documentary films including the award-winning “The House I Live In.” His essays have been published in several popular publications including The New York Times, Scientific American, The Nation, Ebony, The Root, and O Globo (Brazil’s leading newspaper).

Allen Hopper

Allen Hopper was a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Drug Law Reform Project. He represented Professor Lyle Craker in his appeal of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s denial of his application to grow research-grade marijuana for use in studies that aim to develop it into a legal, prescription medicine.

At the ACLU, Mr. Hopper focuses on marijuana policy-related litigation. He wrote a legal analysis of the continued validity of state medical marijuana laws in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Gonzales v. Raich and has been quoted extensively in the national news media on the topic. Mr. Hopper wrote letters to the attorneys general and head officials in four states demanding that they reinstate medical marijuana laws that were improperly suspended after the Raich decision in June 2005. All states complied. In addition to litigating cases, Mr. Hopper works with ACLU staff to conceptualize public education campaigns that aim to shift our nation’s punitive drug policies away from over-incarceration and towards a public health approach.

Mr. Hopper earned his J.D. from the University of California, Davis, School of Law in 1992. While in law school, he worked with a Washington D.C. public interest law firm engaged in litigation seeking to expose the relationship between the war on drugs and American foreign policy in Central and South America. Mr. Hopper worked in the Immigration Law Clinic at the U.C. Davis School of Law and did anti-apartheid impact litigation with the Legal Resources Centre in Durban, South Africa. After graduating from law school and before joining CAP, he worked in private practice focusing on criminal defense, prisoners’ rights and police misconduct litigation.

Android Jones

Lyons, Colorado born independent artist Android Jones began studying art at age 8. He attended the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota FL, where he trained in traditional academic drawing/painting and animation. Jones interned at George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic and later founded Massive Black, an art development company based in LA. Android began his career as an independent artist in 2005. He now lives in his home town of Lyons, maintaining a large art studio in a repurposed barn.

Best described as a “digital painter,” Jones has created an immense body of work. He has become well known for his many layered, psychedelic works and live performances using a custom built digital setup. He participated in the Grateful Dead Fare Thee Well Tour and his work has been projected on the Sydney Opera House and the Empire State Building. A long time member of the Burning Man community, Android has traveled the world exhibiting his work and has contributed to events on 6 continents.

At the center of Jones’ work is spirituality and altered states of consciousness. Describing his work as Electro-Mineralism, Jones attributes his ability to create to the wonders of technology, crediting the planet’s resources for advancements in art production. Manipulating light and energy, Android Jones captures complex concepts while utilizing his formal background in the arts. Described as a digital alchemist, he is determined to alter the viewer’s perception, pushing the boundaries of the imagination through the use of innovative media forms.

Stefanie Jones

Stefanie is director of audience development at the Drug Policy Alliance, based in New York. In this role she oversees communication and outreach to specific communities on drug use and drug policy topics, including on novel psychoactive substances (NPS) and DPA’s youth drug education work. She personally runs the Music Fan program, which introduces harm reduction principles and drug policy alternatives to partygoers, public health officials and city nightlife regulators across the U.S. In her prior role within the organization as event manager she produced four progressively larger editions of the biennial International Drug Policy Reform Conference, as well as numerous local policy conferences, fundraisers and coalition-building meetings.

Kayvan Khalatbari

A leading executive in the cannabis industry, Kayvan Khalatbari co-founded Denver Relief, which was the longest-operating cannabis business in Colorado prior to its sale to Willie Nelson in 2016. He is also co-founder for Denver Relief Consulting, which has assisted clients in a dozen states, Puerto Rico, Washington D.C. and Canada with winning licenses in merit-based application processes and improving existing cannabis operations. Kayvan is also a founding partner in Cresco Labs, the largest medical cannabis cultivator in Illinois, and Silver Sage Wellness in Las Vegas, NV. Kayvan also has a financial interest in several ancillary cannabis businesses, including High Times, MassRoots, Dymapak, VaporSlide, Manna Molecular Science, US Coffee and BrewBudz, and is a primary investor and Co-Executive Producer for Super Troopers 2. Kayvan has been active in cannabis advocacy and government relations for over a decade and currently sits on the board of directors for the NCIA, Resource Innovation Institute, Minority Cannabis Business Association, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Harm Reduction Action Center, and co-chairs a Committee within the Denver Department of Environmental Health to promote environmental stewardship in the cannabis industry.

Ethan Nadelmann

Described by Rolling Stone as “the point man” for drug policy reform efforts and “the real drug czar,” Ethan Nadelmann is widely regarded as the outstanding proponent of drug policy reform both in the United States and abroad. He founded and directed (from 2000 to 2017) the Drug Policy Alliance.

Ethan was born in New York City and received his BA, JD, and PhD from Harvard, and a master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics. He then taught politics and public affairs at Princeton University from 1987 to 1994, where his speaking and writings on drug policy attracted international attention.

He has authored two books on the internationalization of criminal law enforcement – Cops Across Borders and (with Peter Andreas) Policing The Globe – and his writings have appeared in most major media outlets in the U.S. as well as top academic journals (e.g., Science, International Organization), policy journals (Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Washington Quarterly, Public Interest), and political publications from the right (National Review) to the left (The Nation). He is interviewed frequently by media, including The Colbert Report, The O’Reilly Factor, Real Time with Bill Maher, and news programs on all the major U.S. networks as well as dozens of networks elsewhere. His TED Talk, delivered at TEDGlobal in Rio de Janeiro in October 2014, has more than 1.5 million views, with translations into 28 languages.

In 1994, Ethan founded the Lindesmith Center, a drug policy institute created with the philanthropic support of George Soros. A year later, he co-founded the Open Society Institute’s International Harm Reduction Development (IHRD) program. In 2000, the growing Center merged with the Drug Policy Foundation to form the Drug Policy Alliance. Ethan currently serves on the advisory board of the Open Society Foundation’s Global Drug Policy Project (GDPP) and as an advisor to the Global Commission on Drug Policy. He has played a key role as drug policy advisor to George Soros and other prominent philanthropists as well as elected officials ranging from mayors, governors, and state and federal legislators in the U.S. to presidents and cabinet ministers outside the U.S.

David Nichols

David Nichols is an American pharmacologist and medicinal chemist. Previously the Robert C. and Charlotte P. Anderson Distinguished Chair in Pharmacology at Purdue University, Nichols has worked in the field of psychoactive drugs since 1969. While still a graduate student, he patented the method that is used to make the optical isomers of hallucinogenic amphetamines. His contributions include the synthesis and reporting of escaline, LSZ, 6-APB, 2C-I-NBOMe and other NBOMe variants, and several others, as well as the coining of the term “entactogen”. He is the founding president of the Heffter Research Institute, named after German chemist and pharmacologist Arthur Heffter, who first discovered that mescaline was the active component in the peyote cactus. In 2004 he was named the Irwin H. Page Lecturer by the International Serotonin Club, and delivered an address in Portugal titled, “35 years studying psychedelics: what a long strange trip it’s been.” Among pharmacologists, he is considered to be one of the world’s top experts on psychedelics.

The TeaFaerie

The Teafaerie writes stories, poems, movies, plays, and essays, makes videos, organizes flash mobs, and is one of the founders of Prometheatrics, a big, beautiful Esplanade camp at Burning Man. At various times she has been a writer, nanny, actress, flow arts teacher, childbirth doula, homeless person, aid worker, live-action storyteller, toy inventor, app designer, street performer, and party promoter. Her column “Teatime, Psychedelic Musings From the Center of the Universe” comes out regularly on the psychedelic information site Erowid.org.

Brian Vicente

Brian Vicente, Esq., is a partner and founding member of Vicente Sederberg LLC. He served as the co-director of the Amendment 64 campaign and was one of the primary authors of this historic measure, which resulted in Colorado becoming the first state in the nation – and the first geographic area in the world – to make the possession, use, and regulated distribution of marijuana legal for adults. Vicente also serves as executive director of Sensible Colorado, the state’s leading non-profit working for medical marijuana patients and providers. He was given the Gideon award for his free speech advocacy during the 2008 Democratic National Convention. In 2010, Vicente was elected the first-ever chair of the National Cannabis Industry Association, the only trade association in the U.S. that works to advance the interests of marijuana-related businesses on the national level. Brian was the chair of the Committee for Responsible Regulation, which coordinated the successful 2013 campaign to implement statewide excise and sales taxes on the sale of adult-use marijuana in Colorado and was awarded the Justice Gerald Le Dain Award for Achievement in the Field of Law that same year.

Brian has conducted over 1000 interviews in local, state, and national press regarding marijuana policy, and in 2014 The Guardian (UK) dubbed him “the industry’s de facto spokesman.” Vicente’s expertise in marijuana policy is highly sought after, and has led to him serving as a formal advisor to local, state, and federal governments—most recently he assisted with Uruguay becoming the first country in the world to fully regulate the adult marijuana market. Brian serves on the board of directors for a number of state and national non-profit organizations including the SAFER Voter Education Fund and the Harm Reduction Action Center. Vicente graduated from the University of Denver Law School on a full merit scholarship where he clerked for outspoken social critic, Senior Federal Judge John L. Kane.