Board of Directors

David Borden

President and Director, DRCNet Foundation
President and Director, Drug Reform Coordination Network

(See staff bio.)

Michael Krawitz

Director

Michael Krawitz is a disabled United States Air Force Veteran [Sergeant, 1981 - 1986] who serves as Executive Director of Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access [VMCA] as well as in other board and advisory roles.

After California's 1996 Medical Marijuana Proposition passed, Krawitz observed that cannabis used as a palliative adjunct pain treatment to opiates not only produced better pain relief but also significantly lowered the amount of pain medication needed. He recognized that the increasing use of so-called "pain contracts" as a policy would eventually make it impossible for patients to use cannabis as an adjunct medication, with associated reductions in opiate overdoses and suicides being lost.

As a result of Krawitz's advocacy on this issue, the Department of Veterans Affairs revised its pain management system, removing the "pain contracts" in favor of a more flexible policy based upon informed consent. As VMCA's leader, Krawitz successfully negotiated the first ever VA medical cannabis policy in 2010 and has since directed the nationwide effort to add Post Traumatic Stress as a qualifying condition under state medical marijuana access laws.

Krawitz also currently serves as a leader of the Working Group on Medicinal Access to Cannabis, which is in the final stages of the critical review process of the World Health Organization Expert Committee on Drug Dependence.

Marco Perduca

Director

Marco Perduca was a Senator in the Italian Parliament from 2008 to 2013. He served on the Foreign Affairs, Justice, and Human Rights committees.

Perduca is an expert on UN mechanisms, with an emphasis on drug policy reform. For 20 years he coordinated the activities of the Nonviolent Radical Party at the United Nations in New York, as well as in Geneva and Vienna, and currently does so for the organizations Luca Coscioni Association and Science for Democracy. He has organized high-level meetings to abolish the death penalty in Africa and Central Asia, and has collaborated with British law firms and several American foundations on ending human rights violations in Italy.

Perduca's letters and opinions have appeared in the International Herald Tribune, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian. When he was in Parliament, he was often a guest on the BBC as a commentator on Italian politics.

In 2014, Perduca published Operazione Idigov, a chronicle of his activities at the United Nations in the year 2000. In 2018, he co-curated Proibisco Ergo Sum, a collection of essays on prohibitions in Italy, and prefaced La Cannabis Fa Bene alla Politica and Terapie Stupefacenti. He has a blog on the Huffington Post's Italian language site, and in 2020 published a memoir, Farnesina Radicale.

Joey Tranchina

Treasurer and Director, DRCNet Foundation
Treasurer and Director, Drug Reform Coordination Network

Joey Tranchina, MA, is an award-winning photographer, a writer, poet and teacher. He founded and served as Executive Director of the AIDS Prevention ACTION Network (APAN), a syringe exchange outreach project in Silicon Valley in California, from 1989-2011.

Tranchina lives in Séte, France, where he writes & makes photographs, while trying to see Africa from his balcony.

Mitzi Vaughn

Secretary and Director, DRCNet Foundation
Secretary and Director, Drug Reform Coordination Network

Attorney Mitzi Vaughn is a shareholder at Karr Tuttle Campbell in Seattle, Washington. She represents cannabis clients in matters of regulatory compliance, corporate transactions and governance, and intellectual property. She was a founding board member of the International Cannabis Bar Association and currently sits on its advisory board.

Vaughn has advised governmental bodies regarding cannabis regulation, including the Jamaican Cannabis Licensing Authority, the Hawaii Legislature's Joint Health Committee, members of the Washington State Legislature, and the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board. She is also active in many drug policy reform organizations; she serves as General Counsel to The Cannabis Alliance (WA), is an Advisory Council member and General Counsel for Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP).

Vaughn was awarded a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, studied international human rights at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and earned a B.A. in History, magna cum laude, from the University of Texas at San Antonio.