This letter is open to national, state, and local organizations in support of Congress' first drug decriminalization bill introduced by Reps. Bonnie Watson-Coleman (D-NJ) and Cori Bush (D-MO). The ask is for Members of Congress to co-sponsor the Drug Policy Reform Act of 2021 and call for a prompt hearing on the bill and issue.
See the full letter below. If you have questions, please reach out to Queen Adesuyi of the Drug Policy Alliance (
qadesuyi@drugpolicy.org).
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Re: Co-sponsor the Drug Policy Reform Act of 2021 and Call for a Prompt Hearing on the Bill
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, Chairman Nadler, Subcommittee Chairwoman Jackson Lee, and Honorable Members of the U.S. House of Representatives:
We, the undersigned national, state, and local drug policy, justice reform, and public health organizations write to communicate our ardent support for the Drug Policy Reform Act (DPRA) of 2021 (H.R. XXXX), a groundbreaking bill formally introduced on the 50th anniversary of former President Nixon’s declaration of the War on Drugs by U.S. House Representatives Bonnie Watson-Coleman (D-NJ) and Cori Bush (D-MO). The DPRA of 2021 will remove criminal penalties for drug possession at the federal level, shift the regulatory authority of drugs from the Attorney General to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), expunge records and provide resentencing, and invest in alternative health-centered approaches. The bill will also eliminate many of the life-long consequences associated with drug arrests and convictions, including the denial of employment, public benefits, immigration status, drivers’ licenses, and voting rights. We urge Members of Congress to co-sponsor this piece of groundbreaking legislation and call for a prompt hearing on the bill in the House Judiciary Committee.
This year marks 50 years since President Nixon’s declaration of the War on Drugs. Declaring drugs “public enemy number one,” Nixon dramatically increasing the size and presence of federal drug control agencies and enforcement. At the time, Nixon claimed these actions were meant to address a rise in drug use and misuse. However, John Ehrlichman, one of Nixon’s top aides, later on admitted that the War on Drugs was a political strategy to target Black people and the anti-war left. Nonetheless, for decades, U.S. drug policy has prioritized punitive approaches to drug policy over a public health approach to the tune of an estimated $1 trillion. Fifty years later, we have an abundance of evidence that demonstrates the devastating toll of drug war policies on people, communities, and public health.
Against this backdrop, the U.S. is facing an overdose crisis - only worsened by COVID-19 - that is claiming an unprecedented number of lives from opioids and other drugs. In recent years, a growing number of lawmakers and others have taken a more compassionate stance towards people who use drugs, calling for alternatives to arresting people who struggle with drugs and treating addiction as a health issue. This shift towards less punitive attitudes has been fueled by the misleading perception that the overdose crisis has almost exclusively impacted white and affluent communities. The shift in tone, however, has not translated into policy reforms that can help mitigate an underlying factor driving the overdose crisis: criminalization. To turn the tide, we must remove criminal penalties for the possession and use of drugs.
Drug decriminalization benefits public and individual health. Criminalization is a driver of the overdose crisis because criminalization actively dissuades people from getting help for fear of arrest and experiencing stigma from law enforcement, healthcare workers, and others. Criminalization perpetuates the stigmatization of people who use drugs, making it more difficult to engage them in treatment, health care, and other vital services that are proven to transform and save lives. Stigma is a major factor preventing individuals from seeking and completing drug treatment and from utilizing harm reduction services such as syringe access programs. Aggressive law enforcement practices and harsh criminal penalties for drug possession also drive many people into environments where risks of contracting or transmitting HIV and hepatitis C are greatly elevated, and away from testing, prevention, treatment and other effective public health services. Fear of arrest is also the most common reason that witnesses do not immediately call 911 in the event of an overdose.
The criminalization of drug possession is costly and a major driver of criminal justice contact. Each year, U.S. law enforcement makes nearly 1.5 million drug arrests – more arrests than for all violent crimes combined. The overwhelming majority of arrests – more than 80 percent – are for possession alone and involve no violent offense. While exact numbers are unknown, hundreds of thousands of individuals remain under some form of correctional supervision for drug possession offenses. Criminalizing drug possession and placing people in prison, jail or on probation or parole is also an enormous waste of criminal justice resources. The price tag for incarcerating people in state prisons for possession is likely well over $1 billon, with even larger sums spent at the local level.
Additionally, there is a significant human cost to criminalization. Research shows that in the first two weeks after being released from prison, formerly incarcerated people are 40 times more likely to die of an opioid overdose than someone in the general population. Even an entire year after release, overdose rates remained 10-18 times higher among formerly incarcerated individuals compared to the general population. Incarceration of people living with substance use disorder produces the worst outcomes and often leads to accidental, fatal overdose.
The estimated cost of policing low-level drug possession offenses, without even taking into account the money needed for incarceration, supervision, and court proceedings, exceeds $4.28 billion annually. Removing penalties for drug possession would facilitate a divestment from criminal justice systems and an investment in public health to fund projects that can benefit society and help curb addiction, such as investments in health care, education, housing, and life-saving treatment services for those who want and need it.
Enforcement of drug possession laws has produced profound racial and ethnic disparities at all levels of the criminal justice system. Although rates of reported drug use do not differ substantially among people of different races and ethnicities, Black people are far more likely to be criminalized for drug possession and use than white people. Available state and local level data also show that Latinos are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated for drug possession violations. People convicted of drug law violations face a host of additional consequences, including the loss of student financial aid, public housing, occupational licenses, voting rights, and public assistance. In fact, the collateral consequences of a drug arrest or conviction can exacerbate problematic drug use. The brunt of these collateral consequences disproportionately harms poor people and people of color, while wealthy people typically have the resources to address criminal justice issues and/or problematic drug use voluntarily and privately.
Abroad, responding to escalating overdose and HIV rates, Portugal removed criminal penalties for drug possession in 2001. Studies have revealed that the country did not experience any major increase in drug use, all while enjoying fewer drug-related arrests, plummeting rates of HIV and drug-related deaths, and an increase in the number of people seeking treatment. Furthermore, research has found that post-decriminalization, the criminal legal system in Portugal functions more efficiently with significant drops in criminal caseloads while community relations with the police have greatly improved.
Last year, Oregon became the first U.S. state to embrace drug decriminalization by passing a groundbreaking measure--Measure 110--that decriminalized possession of drugs statewide and invested in drug treatment options. A report by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission found that statewide drug decriminalization would reduce 95% of racial disparities in drug arrests and lower criminal convictions of Black and Indigenous residents by 94%.
There has never been a more pertinent time to advocate for such monumental change. According to a June 2021 Bully Pulpit Interactive poll released by the ACLU and the Drug Policy Alliance, 83% of American voters say the war on drugs has failed. Sixty-six percent of voters support “eliminating criminal penalties for drug possession and reinvesting drug enforcement resources into treatment and addiction services.” Decades of evidence has demonstrated the harms of drug criminalization. Consequently, drug decriminalization is a sensible path forward that would reap vast benefits for families and communities.
We strongly urge members of the U.S. House of Representatives to co-sponsor the Drug Policy Reform Act and hold a hearing on the issue of drug decriminalization and a public health approach to drug policy. We applaud this historic bill that will end the criminalization of drug use and possession, invest in evidence-based, public health approaches to drug use, and eliminate the life-long consequences of drug law violations.
Sincerely,
[undersigned organizations]
[letter as of 17 June 2021]
