No More Waiting

It is Time for the United States to Decriminalize Drug Use and Possession Nationwide

The phrase “mass incarceration” is one that has entered the public consciousness on a wide scale relatively recently. Under widespread punitive policies, the United States now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world with 750 per 100,000 people behind bars (Alexander 2010). One of the largest factors that drive these monumental numbers is drug crimes, most of which are for possession only. When people are imprisoned for drug possession and/or use, especially if they were abusing these substances before their arrest, usage often does not stop once they are behind bars or after they are released. Herein lies the issue: a nation that treats drug use and abuse as a criminal issue rather than a public health issue. The United States should decriminalize the usage and possession of all drugs, opting to focus on rehabilitation and safe, regulated usage when necessary in order to decrease deaths from drug overdose as well as other negative life effects that come from drug use and criminalization. Through this shift in policy, the nation will see an increase in quality of life for many and decrease the prison population.

The crack down on drug use and possession in the United States stemmed from and continues to perpetuate a desire to criminalize, arrest, and disenfranchise Black and Brown communities. The “War on Drugs,” coined by Nixon and officially implemented by Reagan, started at a time when drug use in the nation was on a decline. The administration publicized the emergence of crack cocaine in black communities in an effort to build support for the war and they were incredibly successful, spurring media depicting black “crack whores” and “crack babies,” confirming stereotypes already held by the people (Alexander 2010).

“We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did” - Former Nixon domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman (Newman and Papa 2016)

This push to increase drug convictions, in large part, caused the prison population to explode from 300,000 to more than 2 million in less than 30 years, consistently mostly of Black, Brown, and poor individuals (Alexander 2010). Nearly 50% of prisoners, at present, are drug offenders (“More Imprisonment Does Not Reduce State Drug Problems” 2018). Even with these efforts, national rates of drug use have remained essentially the same, in fact, the United states has the highest rate of lifetime drug use by a wide margin (“Approaches to Decriminalizing Drug Use & Possession” 2015). Even more, drug related harm and death, including accidental overdose and the spread of HIV, has increased dramatically. Criminalization of those who engage in illicit drug use has led to a restriction of access to clean syringes, which help reduce the transmission of HIV and other bloodborne illnesses, and a lack of opioid substitution treatments. In the United states, the HIV prevalence in those who inject drugs is astronomical, at 14%, and overdose is now the second leading cause of injury-related death in the United States (“Defining and Implementing a Public Health Response to Drug Use and Misuse” 2013). What’s more, aggressive drug enforcement has been proven to increase levels of violence in the drug market, contrary to what is thought by many. This means that, all in all, the criminalization of drugs and those who use them has not only done little to reduce drug use and increase public health, but has done active harm to individuals and communities.

It is clear that the current approach the United States has taken over the past decades has been counterproductive. In order to move forward in the drug crisis the nation must stop taking punitive measures and shift to a public health approach. This constitutes more than decriminalizing the use and possession of illicit drugs but also redirecting the funds currently being funneled into the ongoing drug war toward drug rehabilitation programs and safe syringe programs. This is not only a health issue but a financial one as research shows every dollar spent on treatment in the United States saves more than a dollar in crime reduction (Frakt 2020). This has been done in other places, with Portugal being a prime example of a nation where these aforementioned policy changes were successful in quelling dangers surrounding drug use.

Not only has prison overcrowding in Portugal decreased but the number of people receiving drug addiction treatment rose by over 60% with, for example, three-quarters of those with opioid use disorder in medical-assisted treatment. Drug induced death in Portugal is not only five times lower than the E.U. average but one-fiftieth of the United States (Bajekal 2018). Additionally, new cases of blood-borne illness decreased, in large part due to syringe exchange programs. These programs are often resisted in the United States, but it has been shown that every dollar spent in syringe-exchange programs saves at least six dollars associated with HIV (Frakt 2020).

What can be learned from Portugal is when people are treated like people, with empathy and understanding, progress can be made. The decriminalization of illicit drugs in the United States and redirected funding into safe-syringe programs, drug treatment, and harm reduction will lead not only to a decrease in the prison population but an increase in quality of life for many individuals and communities. It is time to end the racialized, classist drug war and to shift to a public health approach to drug use in the United States.

References

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colourblindness. Penguin Books, 2010.

“Approaches to Decriminalizing Drug Use & Possession.” Drug Policy Alliance, Feb. 2015, https://www.unodc.org/documents/ungass2016/Contributions/Civil/DrugPolicyAlliance/DPA_Fact_Sheet_Approaches_to_Decriminalization_Feb2015_1.pdf.

Bajekal, Naina. “Want to Win the War on Drugs? Portugal Might Have the Answer.” Time, Time, 1 Aug. 2018, https://time.com/longform/portugal-drug-use-decriminalization/.

“Criminal Justice Drug Facts.” National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, June 2020, https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugfacts/criminal-justice.

“Defining and Implementing a Public Health Response to Drug Use and Misuse.” Defining and Implementing a Public Health Response to Drug Use and Misuse, 5 Nov. 2013, https://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-database/2014/07/08/08/04/defining-and-implementing-a-public-health-response-to-drug-use-and-misuse.

Frakt, Austin. “Pointers from Portugal on Addiction and the Drug War.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Oct. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/05/upshot/portugal-drug-legalization-treatment.html.

Mauer, Marc, and Ryan S. King. “A 25-Year Quagmire: The War On Drugs and Its Impact On American Society.” The Sentencing Project, Sept. 2007, https://www.scribd.com/document/82341720/A-25-Year-Quagmire-the-War-on-Drugs-and-Its-Impact-on-American-Society-by-Marc-Mauer-and-Ryan-S-King-September-2007.

“More Imprisonment Does Not Reduce State Drug Problems.” The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Pew Charitable Trusts, 8 Mar. 2018, https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2018/03/more-imprisonment-does-not-reduce-state-drug-problems.

Newman, Tony, and Anthony Papa. “Top Adviser to Richard Nixon Admitted That 'War on Drugs' Was Policy Tool to Go after Anti-War Protesters and 'Black People'.” Drug Policy Alliance, 22 Mar. 2016, https://drugpolicy.org/press-release/2016/03/top-adviser-richard-nixon-admitted-war-drugs-was-policy-tool-go-after-anti.

Cover Photo by Elsa Olofsson on Unsplash