TESTIMONY TOOLKIT
Hearing Info:
The Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery
Monday September 15th at the State House at 11 am in the Gardner Auditorium
To register to testify you must complete this form saying you support “An act relative to harm reduction and racial justice” (S1391/H2225). To testify online you must fill it out by Thursday, September 11th at 5:00.
Written testimony can be submitted via email to jointcmte-mentalhealth@malegislature.gov
We expect this to be a rather long hearing especially as we are joining our comrades advocating for safe use sites in Massachusetts. For further instructions please visit the hearing notice.
Bill information
Bill texts:
S.1391 - https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/S1391 - Senator Cyr
H.2225 - https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H2225 - Reps Connolly and Montaño
Overview: This bill would decriminalize ALL drugs, which means removing criminal charges and punishments for drug possession, drug conspiracy, and drug paraphernalia. Instead of any penalties, people could only receive a list of resources. The bill would prevent cops from searching people solely for probable cause of drug possession. The bill would also be retroactive, and allow people currently incarcerated for drug possession to be resentenced, or convictions on their record to be expunged.
Policy goal: If we pass this bill, we could invest in life-saving treatment that is on demand, dignified, and consensual, as well as life-sustaining services instead of arrest and incarceration.
A retroactive bill to eliminate the criminal penalties for drug use will help to address the racist history of the War on Drugs and ongoing discrimination in drug enforcement and punishment, which targets Black, brown, and poor communities.
Decriminalizing drugs helps to remove the stigma from drug use and would allow our state to shift substantial resources away from enforcement and punishment into care, healing, and housing. Consensual, dignified treatment on demand is an ethical and effective approach to addiction, while arrest and incarceration causes further harm and exposes people to much worse outcomes, including higher rates of overdose deaths.
Background
Decriminalizing drugs is a pillar of the FreeHer policy platform because drug enforcement drives mass incarceration. The racist War on Drugs has eviscerated Black and brown people’s constitutional rights, and devastated Black and brown communities. The staff and members of Families for Justice as Healing and The National Council have lost too many people they love to decades of incarceration, as well as to overdose and early death caused by lack of equitable healthcare and treatment. Generations of directly impacted people have endured trauma, mental illness, addiction, and been punished with harsh sentences that tore them away from their children and stole years of their families’ lives they can never get back.
While drug use is similar across races, Black people are criminalized at much higher rates than white people. At the same time, Black people experience massive delays in accessing treatments compared to white people. Drug enforcement is racist; overpolicing and harsher sentences contribute directly to lower life expectancy for Black people. We demand care not convictions for all communities.
In Massachusetts, we see drug enforcement ramping up along with the criminalization of homelessness, including sweeps, warrant checks, and increased arrest rates and forced treatment through civil commitments. Criminalization is counterproductive to public safety and health by destabilizing people’s lives; imposing more cruelty, harm, and trauma; pushing people farther away from services and support that would help them recover; and putting up barriers to life-sustaining resources like permanent housing.
Right now, Governor Healey is planning to build a $360 million women’s prison complex in the middle of a housing crisis while she is also closing hospitals and kicking people off of MassHealth. Healey’s plan for women who are struggling with trauma, mental illness, addiction, and poverty is an expensive new prison building with a detox where women will get substandard care provided by private prison contractor VitalCore. Her plan is cruel, backward, and out of touch with what directly impacted women and all the public health experts know women need to be healthy and advance their lives. We encourage you to read this public health letter opposing the Governor’s plan: bit.ly/PubHLetter
Decriminalizing drugs is an essential policy change to keep people out of the front door of the criminal legal system and help them stay home when they are released, so we can instead invest in evidence-based solutions to problematic drug use that will bring about real safety and well-being.
Committee Information
Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery - find your legislators here to see if they’re on the committee
Senate Chair John Velis
Senate Vice Chair Robyn Kennedy
Senator Nick Collins
Senator Cynthia Creem
Senator Julian Cyr (Lead Sponsor)
Senator John Keenan
Senator Kelly Dooner
House Chair Mindy Domb
House Vice-Chair Michelle DuBois
Rep. Susannah Whipps
Rep. Sean Reid
Rep. John Francis Moran
Rep. Kate Donaghue
Rep. Colleen Garry
Rep. Mary Keefe
Rep. Christopher Markey
Rep. Russell Holmes
Rep. Steven Xiarhos
Rep. David Muradian
Rep. Steven Howitt
Talking Points
You can choose from some of these talking points to use in your testimony, but remember your personal stories and expertise are always best!
Most importantly - share the ways the current system causes further harm to you, your loved ones, and our communities, and what you know would be healing for yourself and the people you love instead.
- Drug enforcement targets Black, Brown, and poor communities as “criminals” to be punished for drug use while white communities have greater access to treatment and healing.
- At a time when Trump is ramping up criminalization, deportation, and imprisonment, we should scale back enforcement in Massachusetts and focus on public health.
- Criminalization kills. Incarcerating people for drugs increases the risk of overdose and other devastating or deadly health outcomes.
- Public health experts and providers agree that you can’t provide consensual, effective, or ethical treatment in jail or prison.
- Incarceration does immense and lasting damage to mental health, which can make recovery and healing even more difficult.
- Incarcerating people destabilizes their entire lives, fueling cycles of poverty and forcing people into less safe circumstances - like becoming unsheltered.
- Criminal records for drugs are permanent barriers to accessing resources people need to survive.
- Evidence-based solutions to harmful drug use include consensual on-demand treatment, including medication for opioid use disorder, supervised use sites, trauma-informed and coordinated care, housing, and material aid. Arrest and incarceration are counterproductive to individual healing and public health.
- For years the Sheriff and DOC budgets have increased while the incarcerated population has gone down. They are continuing to demand even more money while trying to frame their jails as treatment centers. People should not have to be incarcerated to get healthcare, which we know will be coercive and substandard. Expanding drug enforcement and punishment means robbing resources from more effective community care, services, and support.
- Governor Healey is planning to build a $360 million women’s prison complex to incarcerate women who are struggling with mental illness, poverty, and addiction. Meanwhile, she is closing hospitals and kicking people off MassHealth. If we have $360 million, that money should be invested in supporting women in their community to heal and advance their lives, rather than separating them from their children and incarcerating them.
Testimony Template
Here is an outline you can use to draft your testimony - edit it in any way you like. Please be advised that oral testimony should be less than 3 minutes, so you may want to choose only 1-2 of the prompts.
If one of your legislators is on the committee, you should identify yourself as a constituent.
Chair Velis, Chair Domb and members of the committee,
My name is ___________________, and I am resident of __________________________ and I support An Act Relative to Harm Reduction and Racial Justice S.1391/H.2225. I also support legislation to authorize Overdose Prevention Centers (H.2196/S.1393).
I am testifying today as…. (share a little bit about yourself, your expertise, and your community. Are you a current or former substance user? Do you love and support people who are or have struggled with addiction? Are you a provider or public health professional? Are you part of an organization or congregation)?
Example:
I believe that Massachusetts should decriminalize drugs because…
As a person who has used drugs/As a person in recovery/As a person who loves and supports people who have used drugs or are in recovery I know that what is most helpful/healing is…
Arresting and incarcerating people who are using substances is harmful because…
If we stop arresting and incarcerating people for drugs we could…
We need to focus on what actually works to help people get consensual recovery, not more policing and prisons.