NEW DIRECTIONS

Religious and Community Leaders Address the Failed Drug War

Conference Gathers This March to Chart a New Course in Drug Policy
That Could Serve As a Model for the Nation.

On Saturday, March 19th, an unprecedented collection of community
advocates, service providers, public safety personnel and public
health professionals will come together at a day-long conference to
chart a new course in drug policy that could serve as a model for the
nation. The New Directions conference will examine the decades-old
ramifications of President Nixon's declaration of the "war on drugs"
in urban communities like Newark and African American communities in
particular.

One of the unique themes of the conference will be how the war on
drugs has increased prohibition-related violence, leading to declines
in property values, the evaporation of local businesses, and an array
of social ills in urban areas. Convened at Bethany Baptist Church,
one of the oldest and largest African American churches in Newark,
the conference will speak to the unique concerns and viewpoints of
communities of color as they look for new ways to reduce the harms of
drug use and drug prohibition. The conference will serve as a model
for cities across the nation looking for new directions and
strategies for ending the war on drugs.

Drug policy experts from across the country and around the globe will
discuss topics including: reducing crime and incarceration,
effectively addressing addiction, treating drug use as a health
issue, communities of color and the war on drugs, and drug policy
lessons and models from abroad. The keynote address will be given by
Michelle Alexander, whose book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration
in the Age of Colorblindness, has sparked a national discussion about
the drug war's disparate impact on communities of color.

When asked about the war on drugs on the campaign trail, President
Barack Obama said, "I believe in shifting the paradigm, shifting the
model, so that we focus more on a public health approach [to drugs]."
Polls show the American people agree. President Obama's drug czar,
Gil Kerlikowske, told the Wall Street Journal last year that he
doesn't like the term "war on drugs" because "[w]e're not at war with
people in this country." Yet for the tens of millions of Americans
who have been arrested and incarcerated for a drug offense, U.S. drug
policy is a war on them--and their families. What exactly is a public
health approach to drugs? What might truly ending the war on drugs look like?

"We see the impact of the 'drug war' first hand, where so many people
are incarcerated for being economically disadvantaged by the
disappearance of work," says Bethany Baptist Church pastor, Reverend
William Howard. "Afterwards, they are virtually permanently barred
from the legal workforce for the rest of their lives. We must take
our stand against the destructive scourge of drug abuse and
trafficking by developing new, sensible strategies that solve more
problems than they create."

The conference will be guided by four principles:

The war on drugs has failed and it is time for a new approach to drug policy.

Effective drug policy balances prevention, harm reduction, treatment
and public safety.

Alcohol and other drug use is fundamentally a health issue and must
be addressed as such.

Drug policies must be based on science, compassion, health and human rights.

Panel members and conference speakers include:

. Rev. Dr. M. William Howard, Jr., pastor, Bethany Baptist Church

. Ethan Nadelmann, executive director, Drug Policy Alliance

. Paula T. Dow, New Jersey Attorney General

. Garry F. McCarthy, police director, City of Newark

. Michelle Alexander, Esq., associate professor, Ohio State
University's Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the
Study of Race and Ethnicity; Author, The New Jim Crow: Mass
Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

. Beny Primm, MD, executive director, Addiction, Research and
Treatment Corporation, Brooklyn, New York

. Todd Clear, dean, School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University

. Donald MacPherson, former drug policy coordinator, City of Vancouver

. Alex Stevens, professor of Criminal Justice, School of Social
Policy, Sociology and Social Research, University of Kent, Chatham, UK

. Stephanie Bush-Baskette, Esq., Author and Director of the Joseph C.
Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Studies at Rutgers University

. Deborah Peterson Small, Founder and Executive Director, Break the
Chains: Communities of Color & the War on Drugs

For a full list of panel members, go to:
http://www.drugpolicy.org/docUploads/DPA_New_Directions_NJ_final_prog_REFERENCE.pdf

The Drug Policy Alliance is co-hosting the 2011 New Directions
conference with the Bethany Baptist Church. For more information on
the conference visit: http://www.bethany-newark.org/