Matthew Elrod

Matt lives with his partner Glenda in Metchosin, B.C., Canada, on the outskirts of Victoria on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, in a log home of his own design.

Matt has been a computer enthusiast since his brother Mark introduced him to a TRS-80 PC with 16 kilobytes of ram and a cassette tape drive.

A strong proponent of bandwidth conservation, Matt is a self-taught web page designer, PERL and PHP programmer.

Matthew is a library cataloguer and president of his family’s business Special Libraries Cataloguing, Inc.

Matt became interested in reforming drug laws after becoming a father in 1987. “The drug war did not protect me, my siblings or my friends from drugs and I do not expect it to protect my children.”

In 1996, his interest in drug policy led him to the drug-related Usenet groups and from there to the Drug Reform Coordination Network. Inspired and encouraged by what was then DRCNet’s Media Awareness Project, Matt founded the Canadian Media Awareness Project, and later became the webmaster of the international Media Awareness Project and several other drug policy reform organizations, most of which are listed at here.
For more history, see Matt’s Introduction to Drug Policy Reform, and Dr. Tom O’Connell’s History of Drugsense.

Matt has contributed articles to Cannabis Culture Magazine  such as:

• Swinging in Singapore
• Canada’s Farce of a Drug Policy Review Continues
• The Politics of Pot
• The Other Demon Weed : the War on Tobacco Users Heats Up
• Warning: Health Canada is Dangerous

And Cannabis Health Magazine, such as a feature article on GW Pharmaceuticals and their effort to bring a cannabis-based medicine to market, which garnered Matt the award of “Best Freelance Writer.”

Matt’s letters and opeds  have been published in various journals, magazines and newspapers.

Matt has made some television, radio and personal appearances such as:

• Alternatives To Drug Prohibition Public Forum
• A talk on Cannabis and the Media
• Several radio appearances on the Drug Truth Network
• The Great VITV Pot Debate
• A one hour radio program on Drugs and Civil Rights for Canadian Voices
• A radio interview on Cannabis News and Views

Matt is a co-recipient of the The Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen Action, a recipient of a Patronage of the Student Movement Award and is a High Times Magazine Freedom Fighter of the Month.

Glenda helps Matt maintain the DrugSense Facebook Group and the CMAP Facebook Page.

Join Matt on Facebook and/or Bluesky.

Challenge Matt to a game of chess at chess.com or lichess.org.