Kevin Zeese - Career

Career

Zeese began his advocacy career as Chief Counsel for National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in 1980 and served as NORML's Executive Director from 1983 to 1986. During his time at NORML he helped stop the spraying of herbicides on marijuana in Mexico and the United States, and he became a leading advocate of the medical use of marijuana.

He has since been involved in helping found such drug policy reform efforts as the Harm Reduction Coalition and the Drug Policy Foundation (later merged with other organizations into the Drug Policy Alliance), and he worked with Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's "Mayor's Working Group on Drug Policy Reform", and the "Journey for Justice," a protest march on Washington. He worked to bring public attention to the death of Esequiel Hernandez Jr, a high school student killed by Marines on the U.S.-Mexico border in Redford, Texas. Zeese is currently president of Common Sense for Drug Policy an organization dedicated to reforming drug policy and expanding harm reduction.

Zeese was director of the Ralph Nader-connected group Democracy Rising, an organization which worked to prevent and then end the 2003 Iraq War. From December 2007 to April 2011, he directed the Campaign for Fresh Air and Clean Politics which includes as projects two efforts TrueVoteMD and VoteTrustUSA, both of which work for a voter verified paper audit trail with electronic voting.

In October 2008 TrueVote.US encouraged an email letter writing campaign in response to a report the previous week finding Virginia was one of the least prepared states for Election Day problems such as long lines, broken machines and software malfunctions. However, the hundreds of emails crashed the system, making it more difficult to get out electronic absentee ballots. Zeese stated the purpose of the campaign was for "elections officials to know people are watching and for people to know they want adequate voting machines." In response to election officials request they call off the email campaign, Zeese did so saying "We made our point."

As reported by the Washington Post, Zeese has entered into the debate over the allegations of impropriety by Justice Department lawyers in opinions being used to justify the Bush Administration's "advanced interrogation techniques". Zeese has filed a formal request with the D.C. Office of Bar Counsel for the disbarment of the lawyers who wrote the memos used as justification for interrogation methods that many consider to be torture.

Zeese worked on the 2003 gubernatorial campaign of Green Party candidate Peter Camejo in California. He was the spokesman (press secretary) for Ralph Nader's 2004 presidential campaign.

Zeese writes for CounterPunch. He has been published in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post as well as on web outlets like Common Dreams, AlterNet, Dissident Voice, The Raw Story, LewRockwell.com, and Z Magazine. He is the author of several books.