Drug policy; Sara Serot, JD and Dennis Owsley, PhD

President Richard Nixon first declared a “War on Drugs” in 1971 as the government stepped up efforts to eradicate the country of mind-affecting drugs. Currently, the United States spends $40 billion annually on this “war” with no positive results. Drug policy since the 1980’s has gutted the illegal search and seizure clause of the 4th Amendment. Drug laws have not been applied equally across all social classes and many believe are specifically targeted at the poor. By all accounts, our drug policy has been a failure.

Sara Serot was born in St. Louis. She has Masters Degrees in Special Education and in Health Administration. Sara earned her law degree from St. Louis University and has been a Public Defender in the state of Missouri for the past 19 years.

Dennis Owsley was born in California and earned a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry. He is the host of “Jazz Unlimited” on St. Louis Public Radio and has written a history of St. Louis jazz. Since the 1980’s, he has been lecturing and teaching about the relationship between chemical structure and activity of mind-affecting drugs.