| Biography | Jim Parker is one of the leading proponents of realistic, credible drug information in the United States. He has been active in the chemical dependency field as both a writer and education specialist for 20 years. He has worked on the local, regional, and national level in a variety of positions including as the Director of Crisis Services of Gemini House, an alternative street-drug crisis/treatment program in Champaign, Illinois; and as a Regional Prevention coordinator at the NIDA Central Regional Support Center in Chicago. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the Do It Now Foundation, an innovative national drug education project based in Arizona.Over the past two decades, Mr. Parker has lectured on substance abuse topics at a variety of institutions and national forums and is the author of hundreds of articles and publications on drug and related topics. He came into the chemical dependency field after a 10-year personal involvement with drugs, and has witnessed the devastating personal consequences of drug abuse both firsthand and through contacts with thousands of users and their friends and family.While he does not sympathize with chemical abuse in any of its forms, he believes "that the allure of drugs is deeply rooted in the human experience and is reinforced by the materialistic ethic of our society." He argues that "the War on Drugs has only compounded the problem, shattering the lives of millions of users and undermining the principles of personal freedom and civil liberties on which our nation was founded." |
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