1.5 million people each year for drug law violations

Criminalizing drug use hurts families and communities, compounds social and economic inequalities, and unfairly denies millions of people the opportunity to support themselves and their families.

politicians, who must put politics aside as they tackle addiction and mental illness as a health issue, not a criminal one.

decriminalize illicit drugs and save lives in the midst of an unprecedented overdose crisis, a leading drug-policy expert says.

The number of Portuguese dying from overdoses plunged more than 85 percent before rising a bit in the aftermath of the European economic crisis of recent years. Even so, Portugal’s drug mortality rate is the lowest in Western Europe — one-tenth the rate of Britain or Denmark — and about one-fiftieth the latest number for the U.S.

25,000 Portuguese use heroin, down from 100,000 when the policy began.

After more than 15 years, it’s clear which approach worked better. The United States drug policy failed spectacularly, with about as many Americans dying last year of overdoses — around 64,000 — as were killed in the Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq Wars combined. Photo

drug addiction has been treated more as a medical challenge than as a criminal justice issue.

gently encourages them to try to quit and gives them clean hypodermics to prevent the spread of AIDS.

Leading medical, public health, and human rights groups have endorsed drug decriminalization, including: United Nations World Health Organization International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies American Public Health Association Human Rights Watch American Civil Liberties Union Movement for Black Lives NAACP Latino Justice National Latino Congreso Organization of American States

A policy of drug decriminalization: Drastically reduces the number of people arrested, incarcerated, or otherwise swept into the justice system, thereby allowing people, their families and communities to avoid the many harms that flow from drug arrests, incarceration, and the lifelong burden of a criminal record; Alleviates racial, ethnic and income-based disparities in the criminal justice system; Improves the cost-effectiveness of limited public health resources; Revises the current law enforcement incentive structure and redirects resources to prevent serious and violent crime; Creates a climate in which people who are using drugs problematically have an incentive to seek treatment; Improves treatment outcomes (when treatment is called for); Removes barriers to the implementation of practices that reduce the potential harms of drug use, such as drug checking (adulterant screening); and Improves relationships between law enforcement agencies and the communities they have sworn to protect and serve.

And though many people believe that so-called “hard drugs” like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine are more addictive than other substances, the data suggests that most people who use these drugs never become addicted.

can trigger automatic detention and deportation, often without the possibility of return.

Drug criminalization also fuels mass detentions and deportations

Black people comprise just 13 percent of the U.S. population and use drugs at a similar rate as other racial and ethnic groups – but they comprise 29 percent of those arrested for drug law violations and roughly 35 percent of those incarcerated in state prison for drug possession onl

the loss of federal financial aid, eviction from public housing, disqualification from a wide range of occupational licenses, loss of the right to vote, and denial of public assistance.

Hundreds of thousands of people also remain under some form of correctional supervision (probation, parole, or other post-prison supervision) for drug possession.

On any given night, there are at least 133,000 people behind bars in U.S. prisons and jails for drug possession — and 63,000 of them are held pre-trial

more than 80 percent — are for possession only and involve no violent offense.

Each year, U.S. law enforcement makes more than 1.5 million drug arrests

limination of all punitive, abstinence-based, coercive approaches to drug use

Drug decriminalization also ideally entails the removal of criminal penalties for low-level sales, given that the line between seller and user is often blurred

Drug decriminalization is the elimination of criminal penalties for drug use and possession, as well as the elimination of criminal penalties for the possession of equipment used for the purpose of introducing drugs into the human body, such as syringes.

Drug decriminalization is a critical next step toward achieving a rational drug policy that puts science and public health before punishment and incarceration

effective health-based interventions.

criminals

has been a catastrophic failur

Since the 1970s, the drug war hasled to unprecedented levels of incarceration and the marginalization of tens of millions of Americans –disproportionately poor people and people of color –while utterly failing to reduce problematic drug use and drug-related harms.

Decades of empirical evidence from around the world shows that reducing and eliminating criminal penalties for drug possession does not increase rates of drug use or crime – while drastically reducing addiction, overdose and HIV/AIDS.

Our retrograde federal administration is ramping up the war on drugs – despite widespread public support for ending it and instead focusing our limited resources on health-based approaches to drug addiction and overdose deaths.

133,000 people behind bars in U.S. prisons and jails for drug possession – and 63,000 of these people are held pre-trial, which means they’re locked up simply because they’re too poor to post bail.

80 percent of those arrests are for simple drug possession.

More than a million people are arrested each year in the U.S. for drug possession,

Decriminalization benefits public safety and health.

Our retrograde federal administration is ramping up the war on drugs – despite widespread public support for ending it and instead focusing our limited resources on health-based approaches to drug addiction and overdose deaths.

Half of all adults in the U.S. have used an illegal drug at some point.

More than a million people are arrested each year in the U.S. for drug possession