DPA Ally Spring 2012

8/2/2019 DPA Ally Spring 2012

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Your Support is Paying Off

Lets Keep Up the Momentum!

Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director

Never before has support for legalizingmarijuana been so widespread or so outin the open. As a DPA member, you havebeen at the heart of this debate, and arepoised to lead the discussion through toreal policy reform. Ending marijuana prohibition representsthe most politically feasible way of dramati-cally rolling back the reach of prohibitionistdrug policies. More than half of all drugarrests are for marijuana. And more than850,000 Americans were arrested for

marijuana in 2010 alone 87 percent formere possession.

Public support for making marijuana legalhas shifted dramatically in the last twodecades, especially in the last few years.For the first time, a recent Gallup pollhas found that 50 percent of Americans

support making marijuana legal, with only46 percent opposed. Majorities of men,18-29 year-olds, 30-49 year-olds, liberals,moderates, Independents, Democrats, andvoters in western, midwestern and easternstates now support legalizing marijuana.

In Congress, a bipartisan group oflegislators has introduced the first billever to end federal marijuana prohibition.Just a few years ago, Ron Paul andBarney Frank would probably have beenthe only members of Congress willing tosign on to this sort of bill. Whats amazingis that 20 Representatives have nowco-sponsored the bill includingRepublican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and

Democratic Rep. John Conyers, whorecently chaired the House JudiciaryCommittee. Your calls and letters haveplayed a key role in persuading membersto sign on, and you can be sure that DPAwill call on you again to take action.(continued on page 3)

In This Issue:

2: Richard Branson JoinsDPA Honorary Board

3: Voices From the Movement

4: Growing Movement Shines at BiennialReform Conference

6: You Are Saving Lives in California andNew Jersey

7: DPA Campaign Leads to Breakthroughin Reducing NYC Marijuana Arrests

8: Cutting the Drug War in Congress

Safety First: A Reality-Based Approachto Teens and Drugs

Questions? Feedback?We love to hear from our members.Contact the Ally by writing to editorJag Davies at:newsletter @drugpolicy.org

Want to share one of thesestories with a friend?The Ally is online at:www.drugpolicy.org/ally

DPAs New York City headquar tershas moved please note ournew address:131 West 33 Street, 15th FloorNew York, NY 10001

Spring 2012www.drugpolicy.org

Support forMaking Use ofMarijuana LegalIncreases

Do you think the use of marijuanashould be made legal or not?

1970

84 81

78

66

70

70

73 73

64 64

60 50

46

50

4636

34

34

312523

25

25

28

15

12

16

62

1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010

Source: Gallup

% No, illegal % Yes, legal


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Ally2 Spring 2012 www.drugpolicy.org

Richard BransonJoins DPA Honorary Board

What do you have in common withArianna Huffington, Paul Volcker andHarry Belafonte? You are helping to bringabout drug policies grounded in science,compassion, health and human rights.

The DPA Honorary Board includesprominent figures from both the left andthe right who are renowned for their

leadership in the fields of law, health,business, media and politics fromRam Dass, Russell Simmons and Stingto the former U.S. secretary of state,secretary of defense, surgeon general,attorney general and chairman of theFederal Reserve.

As we celebrate Bransons arrival on theboard, we also mourn the passing of threemembers in 2011: Vclav Havel, PatrickV. Murphy and Dr. Charles Schuster. Havelwas a Czech playwright, poet, dissidentand politician who became the ninthand last president of Czechoslovakia(19891992) and the first President of the

Czech Republic (19932003). Murphyis best known for leading the New YorkPolice Department in the early 1970sthrough one of its roughest periods as heinstituted reforms to root out corruption.Dr. Schuster, meanwhile, was the directorof the National Institute on Drug Abusefrom 1986 to 1992 and served as thedirector of the Addiction Research Institute.Their voices will be missed in the ongoingstruggle to end the war on drugs.

Some people might still think that drug

policy reform is a fringe issue. But yoursupport has enabled dozens of significantvictories to reduce the role of the criminaljustice system in drug policy across theU.S. and around the world and hasattracted the backing of many eyebrow-raising names that place drug policyreform squarely in the mainstream ofnational and international politics.

DPA Honorary Board

Former Mayor Rocky AndersonHarry BelafonteRichard BransonFormer Defense Secretary Frank CarlucciRep. John Conyers, Jr.Walter Cronkite [1916-2009]Ram DassDr. Vincent Dole [1913-2006]Former President of Switzerland

Ruth DreifussFormer Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders

Were thrilled to announce that RichardBranson is the latest luminary to join ourHonorary Board. Branson is best known asa social entrepreneur and founder of theVirgin Group. In the past year, however,he has stepped out as a prominentsupporter of drug policy reform. Hisinvolvement with the Global Commissionon Drug Policy electrified the international

media and brought a new level of atten-tion to the growing movement to end the40-year-old war on drugs.

Speaking by Skype to attendees at DPAsReform Conference last November,Branson said, I think it became clear toall of the commissioners that the war ondrugs has failed, and that what we needto do is to treat drugs as a health problem,not as a criminal problem.

Branson and DPA Executive Director EthanNadelmann at the launch of the Global Commissionon Drug Policys report.

U.S. District Court Judge Nancy GertnerFormer Police Chief Penny HarringtonFormer President of the Czech Republic

Vclav Havel [1936-2011]Calvin HillArianna HuffingtonFormer Governor Gary JohnsonU.S. District Court Judge John KaneFormer Attorney General

Nicholas deB. KatzenbachFormer Police Chief Joseph McNamaraFormer Police Commissioner

Patrick V. Murphy [1920-2011]

Dr. Beny J. PrimmDennis RiveraFormer Mayor Kurt SchmokeDr. Charles Schuster [1930-2011]Alexander ShulginFormer Secretary of State

George P. ShultzRussell SimmonsStingU.S. District Court Judge Robert SweetFormer Chairman of the Federal Reserve

Paul Volcker


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www.drugpolicy.org 3

Meanwhile we continue to work on legalizingmedical marijuana in more states well beparticularly engaged in New York this year and ensuring effective implementation inmedical marijuana states.

Our greatest challenge is keeping theorderly expansion of medical marijuana ontrack in the face of relentless attacks bythe federal government. Not only have ourvictories enabled hundreds of thousandsof Americans to legally use and possessmarijuana, but theres good reason to be-lieve that progress on this issue swaysthe public to support broader legalizationof marijuana.

DPAs supporters come from all around theworld, across the political spectrum, andhave life experiences that vary dramatically.But what we share is more important thananything that separates us: a passion for up-rooting the fears, ignorance and prejudicesthat fuel the drug war, and a yearning for amore compassionate, just andeffective way of dealing with drugs in ourlives and in our communities. You are making a difference. I am grateful forall youve done, and all that you cando especially now.

Ally Spring 2012

Your Support is Paying Off(continued from cover)

In Colorado and Washington, we are deeplyinvolved with local allies in drafting andfunding initiatives that will appear on thosestates ballots in November. Slight majoritiesin both states favor making marijuana legal.We came close with Proposition 19 inCalifornia in 2010, winning 46.5 percent ofthe vote and Im sure we can do evenbetter this November.

Harm Reduction in Illinois

One of the reasons I co-founded theIllinois Consortium on Drug Policy atRoosevelt University in 2005 was to bringabout a public health approach to druguse. Ive spent the last decade of mylife working to help others understandand treat people who use drugs with

compassion, as one would with any otherhealth condition.

Research shows that the primary reasonpeople dont call 911 in the event of adrug overdose is the fear of police involve-ment, arrest and prosecution. I understandthis fear both as a researcher and from myown experience as a former heroin user.

I became addicted to heroin in college.At one point I used heroin with myboyfriend and watched him overdose.I had to call 911 a call that was nearlyimpossible to make.

Our friends were screaming at me formaking the call, worried that we wouldall get in trouble. It was a moment ofparalyzing chaos. At the time I wonderedif I was doing the right thing. Now I knowthat no one should think twice aboutcalling 911 for fear of arrest, which is whypassing a 911 Good Samaritan law willtake away that fear and save lives.

This reform is needed now more thanever. Drug overdose, from both legal andillegal drugs, is now the leading causeof accidental death in the U.S. Peopleneed to know that if they have a friendor family member who misuses theirprescription pain medication they shouldcall 911 without any doubt that they aredoing the right thing.

We got lucky that time. My boyfriendregained consciousness just before theparamedics arrived. While my experi-ence is in line with how Hollywood mightportray an overdose, in fact today it ismore common for someone to overdoseon prescription painkillers, the very pillsyou might have in your medicine cabinetright now.

No one should have to weigh the life ofanother human being against the chanceof arrest when they call 911. That waswhy, as a former heroin user and as acurrent researcher and advocate, I knewI needed to work on passing a 911 GoodSamaritan law in Illinois.

We worked with a number of differentorganizations and individuals to craft thislegislation. Parents who had lost theirchildren to overdose became our mostpassionate spokespeople.

Voices From the Movement

It was hard work. Our coalition wassmall, but we had partners who providedvaluable legislative support and wechose our sponsors carefully. Mostimportantly, we made it clear: no oneshould die because someone was afraidto call 911. And because of our efforts topass Good Samaritan in Illinois, now theywont have to be afraid.

To hear more voices from the movement,check out: www.drugpolicy.org/community/movementPlease help spread the word!

Kathie Kane-Willis is the director of the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, a DPA grantee, whichplayed a leading role in the 2012 passage of Illinois 911 Good Samaritan law.


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It truly feels as if our movement getsstronger every year. You could reallysense this when we came togetherlast November at the 2011 InternationalDrug Policy Reform Conference inLos Angeles.

Even weeks later, many of you expressedthat you were still inspired by the energyof the gathering. Many people in ourdiverse and growing movement point

to their first Reform Conference as atransformative moment in their commit-ment to drug policy reform and theirunderstanding of its breadth.

The conference was our largest ever,bringing together more than 1,200 par-ticipants. California Lieutenant GovernorGavin Newsom, former Governor ofNew Mexico Gary Johnson, CaliforniaNAACP director Alice Huffman, Mexicanpoet and movement leader Javier Sicilia,and travel writer Rick Steves joined drug

policy experts, health care and drug

treatment professionals, law enforce-ment, formerly incarcerated people,elected officials, and students fromaround the country and across the world.

The conference also featured a publicrally, No More Drug War: A Rally &Concert to End the War on Drugs.

There were too many thoughtful andpassionate talks to call out in one short

article, but you can experience theconference once more by watchingand sharing videos of all the conferencesessions at www.reformconference.org .

We hope that you keep this feelingwith you in the year to come, and markyour calendars for the next ReformConference October 23-26, 2013at the Sheraton Downtown hotel inDenver, Colorado.

Growing Movement Shines atBiennial Reform Conference

Top Left: Conference participants amass at apublic rally calling for an end to the drug war. Top Middle: Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and Tina Reynolds, chair of WORTH, an organizationthat works to empower currently and formerly incarcerated women.

Top Right: California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom

Lower Right: DPA Managing Director of Strategic Initiatives Jill Harris and Brad Senesac of the Berkeley Patients Group. Lower Center: Seema Ahmad, staff attorney at the Advancement Project in Washington, D.C. Lower Left: Travel writer and television show

host Rick Steves and Sonja Sohn, star of The Wire and founder of ReWired for Change.



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Ally www.drugpolicy.org 5Spring 2012


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Your support of DPAs work to improveaccess to sterile syringes is helpingto significantly reduce the number ofpeople who are infected with HIV/AIDS,hepatitis C and other diseases. One-thirdof all AIDS cases in the U.S. are directlyor indirectly attributable to injection druguse. Virtually all scientific studies havefound that improving access to sterilesyringes through both pharmacies andsyringe exchange programs reduces

the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C andother infectious diseases without increas-ing drug use.

DPA has played a pivotal role in passinglegislation to expand syringe access inthree of the states with the highest ratesof drug-related disease transmission:California (2004 and 2011), New Jersey(2006 and 2012) and New York (2010). Ineach case, we spent years overcomingkneejerk opposition from prosecutorsand demoralizing vetoes by various gov-

ernors. In each case, we came back yearafter year after year, until we finally won.

Unfortunately, despite our recentsuccesses at the state level, we weredealt a major blow at the federallevel last December when Congressre-instated the ban on cities and statesusing federal HIV/AIDS preventionmoney on syringe access programs.The bans repeal in 2009, following atwo-decade-long struggle by DPA andour partners, was a watershed moment,which makes this setback especially

disheartening. The ban was re-instatedwith no public debate and was snuck inas a last-minute rider to the 2012 omni-bus spending bill. We almost stoppedthis setback by engaging grassroots andgrasstops advocates and were goingto fight hard in 2012 to ensurethat its repealed once and for all.

In New Jersey, the news has been muchbetter. DPA spearheaded passage oflegislation signed by Governor ChrisChristie this January that allows for the

sale of syringes in pharmacies without

You Are Saving Lives inCalifornia and New Jersey

a prescription. New Jersey was one ofonly two states (the other is Delaware) thatcompletely ban over-the-counter salesof syringes.

In California, Governor Jerry Brownsigned not one, but two, life-saving syringeaccess bills in late 2011. One bill allowspeople to buy syringes at pharmacieswithout a prescription. Although somecounties had opted-in to a pilot program

that proved extremely effective in reduc-ing syringe-sharing, most counties did notparticipate. This expands that successfulpilot statewide.

The second bill would allow the CaliforniaDepartment of Public Health to authorizenew syringe exchange programs, afterconsultation with local public health andlaw enforcement leadership. This bill putspublic health experts in charge of thehealth of the community, instead of waitingfor an elected official to do so.

Now, thousands of New Jerseyans andCalifornians will have access to proven,effective HIV and hepatitis C prevention.This gives people who use drugs thetools that they need to protect their healthand that of their partners, children andcommunities, as well as protectingtaxpayers from the cost of HIV andhepatitis C infections. Making sure ourpublic health and criminal justice policiesare in sync means more people willparticipate in programs that are a gatewayto better health.

Now, thousands ofNew Jerseyans and Californianswill have access to proven,effective HIV and hepatitis C

prevention.


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Ally www.drugpolicy.org 7Spring 2012

Thanks to you, thousands of New Yorkerscould be spared from the devastating

collateral consequences of gettingarrested for possessing a small amountof marijuana.

A marijuana arrest is no small matter most people are handcuffed, placed ina police car, taken to a police station,fingerprinted and photographed, heldin jail for 24 hours or more, and thenarraigned before a judge. The arrestcreates a permanent criminal recordthat can easily be found on the Internetby employers, landlords, schools, creditagencies, licensing boards and banks.

Since 1977, possession of smallamounts of marijuana in New York hasbeen a violation, a non-arrestableoffense unless its burning or in plain

public view. Despite the existing law, in2011 the New York Police Department

arrested more than 50,000 people formarijuana possession even thoughthe vast majority of those arrested didnot possess marijuana in public view, aswidely reported in the New York Times ,the Daily News , and many other newsoutlets. These arrests are largely theresult of the NYPD stopping and friskingmore than a half-million mostly youngblack and Latino men and falselycharging them for marijuana possessionin public view.

A campaign led by the Drug PolicyAlliance, the Institute for Juvenile JusticeReform and Alternatives, and VOCALpounded away at Mayor Bloomberg andthe NYPD for wasting taxpayer dollarsby conducting racially biased policingpractices, performing illegal searches,and falsely charging tens of thousandsof New Yorkers.

DPA Campaign Leads to Breakthroughin Reducing NYC Marijuana Arrests

In September 2011, we reached a majorbreakthrough when NYPD CommissionerRay Kelly issued an internal ordercommanding officers to follow existingNew York State law by ending arrestsfor possession of small amounts ofmarijuana as long as the marijuanawas never in public view. The order doesnot change the law itself but simplyinstructs officers to comport with theexisting law.

The fact that the NYPD admitted anywrongdoing an extremely rare occur-rence represents a tremendousvictory for the many New Yorkers whoare fighting to end the citys marijuanaarrest crusade. But the devil remains inthe details as to whether and how theNYPD implements this new directive.New arrest figures, in fact, show thatsince Kellys order arrests for low-levelmarijuana arrests have fallen by only13 percent since the same period

last year a disappointing drop consid-ering the scale of the NYPDs marijuanaarrest crusade.

Youve created the momentum todramatically reduce marijuana arrests inNew York City and were not going tostop fighting until we win. As other U.S.cities grapple with the fiscal and humanconsequences of arresting thousands ofpeople every year for low-level marijuanaoffenses, the effects of our campaign arereverberating around the country.

To learn more about actions that you cantake to support marijuana law reform,visit www.drugpolicy.org/action . Please tell your friends!

NYC marijuana possession arrestsin 2011: 50,684

Seating capacity at Yankee Stadium: 50,287

Mayor Bloomberg: Arresting people formarijuana is not a game.


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More than a trillion dollars has beenspent on the war on drugs with little toshow for it except overcrowded prisons,enormous racial disparities, and risingrates of overdose fatalities. As Congressconsiders spending cuts, your supportis enabling us to eliminate funding forfailed drug war programs.

In December, we won a significantvictory when Congress completelyeliminated funding for the National YouthAnti-Drug Media Campaign.

For years, DPA has worked to educatemembers of Congress about the inef-fectiveness as documented in sevengovernment-funded evaluations ofthe National Youth Anti-Drug MediaCampaign. Youve probably seen someof the campaigns over-the-top TV ads,which warn that if you try marijuana youwill be supporting terrorism and that you

DPAs Safety First publication providesparents with the tools needed to evalu-ate and discuss strategies for protectingtheir teenagers from drug misuse. Its

been distributed by the California StatePTA to its members, and more than300,000 copies have been distributedto individuals and educational,health and governmental institutionsand agencies.

may end up eating your own handor mowing down children in a fast-foodparking lot.

DPA was also successful in reducingfunding for two drug war programs thatcost hundreds of millions of dollars everyyear: the High Intensity Drug TraffickingAreas program and the Byrne Grantprogram. These programs have a recordof racially disproportionate low-level drugarrests and increased local and statecosts, with no measurable impact onpublic safety.

With your help, we are working to savetaxpayer money for years to come, whileempowering the states, keeping familiestogether and saving lives.

To learn more about actions that you can take to cut drug war waste, visit www.drugpolicy.org/action . Please help spread the word!

Cutting the Drug War in Congress

Safety First:A Reality-Based Approachto Teens and Drugs

w w w.d ru g po lic y.org

Sa fe t y Firs tA Reali t y-Bas ed Ap

proach

to Teens and Drugs

Mars ha Ros en baum, PhD

Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent warn ing, scaring and threatening Americas young people with abstinence-only messages like these.

The booklet is authored by the directoremerita of DPAs San Francisco office,Marsha Rosenbaum, PhD, and hasbeen translated into Spanish, Chinese,

Russian, Ukranian, Romanian, Czech,Hebrew, Portuguese and Greek.

In January, DPA released a new versionof Safety First with updated facts andfigures. To view or obtain a copy, pleasevisit: www.drugpolicy.org/safetyfirst

Documents

DPA Ally Spring 2012