Danny Kushlick is a British political activist and founder of the

Transform Drug Policy Foundation Transform Drug Policy Foundation (Transform) is a registered non-profit charity based in the United Kingdom working in drug policy reform. As an independent think tank, Transform works to promote public health, social justice and human rights thro ...

(TDPF). He has appeared in British media on many occasions advocating for the decriminalisation of drugs. He stood in the

2010 United Kingdom general election The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom unde ...

for The People's Manifesto.

Career

Kushlick founded the

in 1994, and was the organisation's head of external affairs and director. He left in 2019. He has previously worked with various support organisations, covering learning difficulties, unemployed ex-offenders, drug counselling, and homelessness. In 2004, he co-authored the report ''After the War on Drugs: Options for Control'', a critique of current drug policy in the UK and recommendations for reform. He is a regular commentator on drug policy in print and broadcast media – including BBC, Guardian, Observer, OpenDemocracy, Chatham House Magazine (World Today).

The People's Manifesto

In 2010, Kushlick was chosen to stand for

Mark Thomas Mark Clifford Thomas (born 11 April 1963) is an English comedian, presenter, political satirist, and journalist. He first became known as a guest comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show ''The Mary Whitehouse Experience'' in the late 1980s. He is ...

's The People's Manifesto in the 2010 general election in the Bristol West constituency. Kushlick only stood on policy – the legalisation and regulation of drugs – which was drawn from the original manifesto. At Mark Thomas's show at the

Royal National Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...

on 7 April 2010, a selection of policies were directly put forward to Kushlick by members of the audience. In his

party platform A political party platform (US English), party program, or party manifesto (preferential term in British & often Commonwealth English) is a formal set of principle goals which are supported by a political party or individual candidate, in order ...

, Kushlick said he would avoid taking the UK to war, and stated that "the most important 'special relationship' isn't with the US, but with your mum". Kushlick has also been interviewed and cited by many authors on the subject of

drug policy reform Drug liberalization is a drug policy process of decriminalizing or legalizing the use or sale of prohibited drugs. Variations of drug liberalization include: drug legalization, drug re-legalization and drug decriminalization. Proponents of drug ...

Personal life

Kushlick has two daughters and lives in

Whitehall, Bristol Whitehall, is a district on the northeastern edge of central Bristol, within the electoral ward of Easton. Parks The local green space is Whitehall Playing Fields or Packer's Ground as it was known, taking its name from the local chocolate facto ...

Career

The People's Manifesto

Personal life

References

Further reading