“He knows his stuff,” said justice and policy studies professor Will Pizio about Eric Sterling. “He gave the history of race relating to drug wars back to 1900 off the top of his head.”
Sterling presented “The War on Drugs from a Quaker Perspective” to an audience of approximately 40 people Monday, March 24, in the Founders gallery.. Sterling, who has been involved in drug policy legislation since 1979, seemed to be the only person displeased with the turnout.
“I think that if there had been a higher-profile effort to promote my talk, more students might have come,” he said.
Sterling, the president of The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation since 1989, has published analyses of drug issues in leading magazines and newspapers nationwide. He was also counsel to the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1979 to 1989.
“It was a serious coup for Guilford to be able to bring [Sterling] down here,” Pizio said. “He was very approachable; it made contact easy, arrangements easy,; it was great.”
A graduate of Haverford College and a Quaker, Sterling has been a critic of the “War on Drugs” for many years.
Max Carter, the Director of Friends Center, said, “War has root causes – Quakers are called to address the root causes rather than symptoms.” Carter was pleased with Sterling’s presentation, calling it “a pretty animated critique of drug policy.”
Sterling has plenty of experience to draw from. He’s been working for community oriented policing, drug policy reform, and sentencing reform for over a decade.
“Overall, I think he did an excellent job,” said first-year Will Johnson. “I didn’t agree with a lot of things he said, but I definitely saw its value.” Johnson, a Quaker student, was very impressed by Sterling’s presentation.
“He certainly provided explanations for how we approach telling young people about drugs,” Johnson said.
After his presentation, Sterling took questions from the audience. “The questions students asked were phenomenal,” Pizio said. Johnson also expressed his satisfaction at the Q&A session. “He didn’t really address spirituality in his presentation, but he handled it well when students questioned him about it.”
“I wish he would have addressed spiritual issues more,” Carter said.
Pizio said he would be delighted to have Sterling return to campus for a follow-up seminar, adding that the only catch would be “if we can pay him … finding the money to bring him down.”