Chevy Chase, Maryland
Since 1989, Eric E. Sterling has been the executive director of The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps educate the nation about criminal justice issues and failed global drug policy. He frequently lectures at colleges, universities and professional societies throughout the nation and is regularly interviewed by the national news media.
Sterling helped found and serves on the board of directors of FAMM, formerly Families Against Mandatory Minimums. He also serves on the boards of directors of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the Andean Information Network, supporting human rights in Bolivia, and the Tree of Hope Association, supporting those in recovery in Montgomery County, MD. He helped found the Marijuana Policy Project and Marijuana Majority and was editor-in-chief of NewsBriefs, the newsletter of the National Drug Strategy Network.
As a gubernatorial appointee to the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, he was principal author of Maryland's medical cannabis regulations in 2015.
From 1979 until 1989, he was assistant counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. On the staff of the subcommittee on crime, he was responsible for drug enforcement, gun control, money laundering, organized crime, pornography, terrorism, corrections and military assistance to law enforcement. He was a principal aide in developing the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, the Anti-Drug Abuse Acts and other laws.
He was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the NORML Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Sterling received a BA from Haverford College and his JD from Villanova University School of Law. He graduated from Hurricane Island Outward Bound School in 1968, led wilderness canoe trips for high school students and climbed the Matterhorn. He lives in Chevy Chase, MD.