Extracting Punishment from Our Civil Systems: Drug Policy Alliance Launches New Initiative with Series of Reports Illustrating How the Drug War Has Contaminated Six Critical Systems

Date:  02-20-2021 'Uprooting the Drug War' Highlights Need to Remove Drug War's 'Roots' from Education, Employment, Housing, Child Welfare, Immigration, and Public Benefits

From Drug Policy Alliance: The war on drugs has impacted nearly every aspect of our lives. Our government criminalizes people who use drugs instead of providing education and addiction health services, including treatment. Rather than invest in communities, public officials invest in surveillance, policing, and punishment tactics that disproportionately target and impact people of color, low-income people, and non-citizens. Though these tactics have fueled mass incarceration, that is not their only impact. There are serious consequences for drug use in nearly every sector of civil life — education, employment, housing, child welfare, immigration, and public benefits. Punishment is not limited to the criminal legal system. Instead, it is the default reaction to drug use wherever it shows up, impacting our lives in profound but largely unrecognized ways. We must shine a spotlight on the insidious ways the drug war has spread into all our systems. Continue reading>>>