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An estimated $1 trillion has been spent waging the drug war in foreign countries, incarcerating millions of people at home and militarizing law enforcement at all levels of government. Drug war violence – police brutality, the taking of children from parents, the caging of human beings, the deadly stigma and discrimination against drug users – has fallen hardest on low-income neighborhoods and marginalized communities.
More than 80 percent of Republicans, Democrats and Independents agree that the war on drugs has failed, according to a new nationwide poll of registered voters from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Drug Policy Alliance. Two-thirds of voters say drugs are a public health issue and criminal penalties should be removed for all drugs, not just cannabis, so the money spent on drug enforcement can be reinvested into addiction treatment and mental health services. Decriminalizing people involved with drugs and refocusing resources on public health would mark the beginning of the end of the drug war, but federal drug laws prohibiting drugs remain frozen in time. Where they exist, state and local reforms move slowly and are often limited to cannabis or small amounts of drugs.
Additionally:
66% of voters support “eliminating criminal penalties for drug possession and reinvesting drug enforcement resources into treatment and addiction services.”
Nearly two-thirds of the country believe we need a new approach based in public health, not law enforcement. 63% say drug use should be addressed as a public health issue while only 33% say it should be addressed as a criminal justice issue.
83% say the “War on Drugs” has failed. This exceeds 80% among Democrats (83%), Independents (85%), and Republicans (82%).
65% of voters support ending the “War on Drugs.”
64% of Americans support repealing mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes.
61% of voters support commuting, or reducing, the sentences of people incarcerated for drugs.
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