Reject Drug War-Era Policies

Act Now

Lessons from more than 50 years of the drug war have taught us that drug penalties don't deter drug use or sale. They don't end overdose deaths. The only thing that they've ever done is to drive arrests and mass incarceration, particularly among Black and brown communities. Now is the time for our state to build on its past successes by reinvesting in the communities most harmed by criminalization and shifting to a public health approach to drugs.

Message Recipients:
Your State Senator
Your State Assemblyperson
Senate President Nick Scutari
Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin
Senator Paul Sarlo
Assemblywoman Eliana Pintor Marin

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Your Message

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Subject

Over the last few years, New Jersey has taken meaningful steps towards ending the drug war with the passage of cannabis legalization and decriminalization. These policy changes have yielded results, including fewer unnecessary and racially disparate arrests for marijuana and expungements for people with prior marijuana convictions. Yet despite these advances, New Jersey families continue to be harmed every day by drug war-era policies that fail to make our communities safer or healthier. Now is the time for our state to build on its past successes by reinvesting in the communities most harmed by criminalization and shifting to a public health approach to drugs.

Message Body

The drug war has been a tool of racial injustice, driving mass criminalization and disproportionately targeting Black and brown communities through policing and harsher sentencing. New Jersey arrests Black residents for drug war violations at 3.3 times the rate of white residents, despite white people both using and selling criminalized drugs at a higher rate. And New Jersey's prisons also have the worst racial disparities between Black and white people - 12.5 times - of any state.

Overwhelming data from over fifty years of the drug war prove that we cannot criminalize our way to better public health and public safety outcomes. Drug penalties do not deter drug use or sale or end overdose deaths. Instead, they only drive arrests and incarceration and make it harder for people with substance use disorder to access the evidence-based services and health care that they need. 
 
Despite this research, New Jersey spent $11.6 billion between 2009 and 2019 to enforce the drug war through policing, prosecution, and incarceration. And in 2019, the State spent 8.5 times more towards the drug war than the State's investment in addiction services and 27.9 times higher than spending on rental assistance, homelessness shelters, homelessness prevention, and lead abatement combined.  
 
Revenue from cannabis - already promised for reinvestment in the communities most harmed by marijuana criminalization - is an opportunity for that state to begin addressing decades of disinvestment, but only if decisions are driven by a transparent, community-led process, including public tracking of revenue spent and annual reporting on reinvestment, are incorporated into the process. With tens of millions of dollars on the table - and eventually hundreds of millions of dollars as the industry grows - each year, community members must be centered at every step of the process.

This is the time for action and leadership. We cannot keep relying on punitive drug war-era policies that we already know do not work. Instead, New Jersey must shift its approach to drug use from criminalization and punishment to one that prioritizes public health and reinvestment in the communities most harmed by the drug war.

Sincerely,

[First Name] [Last Name]

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Reject Drug War-Era Policies

Act Now

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