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Richard Cowan Biography

Date of birth: June 26, 1940
Education: Fort Worth, Texas, Public Schools 1945-1958
Bachelor of Arts in Economics: Yale University, 1962
(Cowan’s political background often surprises people unfamiliar with the issues. He was President of the Yale Young Republicans; Chairman of the Party of the Right in the Yale Political Union; Founding member of Young Americans for Freedom; etc.

Business background: 1962-1992

Various management positions in manufacturing and natural resources. He has served on the boards of a number of publicly owned companies. Duties included all aspects of corporate management, finance, and due diligence for investments in a variety of areas, including alternative medicine, which gave him some insight into some of the problems confronting medical marijuana. Not every closed mind is found in the DEA

Writing and speaking on public affairs, 1972-present.

December 6, 1972 the late William F. Buckley, Jr.’s National Review published (as a cover article) "Why Conservatives Should Support the Legalization of Marijuana." In his book Smoke and Mirrors, Dan Baum said that this article "opened a second front in the War on Drugs." Time Magazine even carried a story about the article.

December 5, 1986 National Review also published (again as a cover article):

"How the Narcs Created Crack." This article has been cited in various scholarly journals as the origin of the economics of contraband, "The Iron Law of Prohibition: the harder the enforcement, the harder the drugs." See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_prohibition

Writings on other subjects have appeared in a variety of newspapers and other publications, including the Atlantic Monthly.

August 1992 - August 1995:
National Director of NORML, The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. During that time Cowan’s television appearances included interviews on numerous news programs, including CNN, and a variety of talk shows including Posner/Donahue.

In 1997 Cowan launched MarijuanaNews.com, which has been called the first marijuana blog.

(MarijuanaNews is currently being reworked and is offline.)

Currently:

Advisory Board Member: NORML
Senior Advisor: Prometheus Institute, Weedmaps.com

Email: RCOWAN@RCOWAN.COM