BLACK LEGISLATORS: DRUG WAR HAS FAILED

Eyeing the failure of California voters to repeal Three Strikes laws, the
National Black Caucus of State Legislators has approved a resolution
condemning the "war on drugs" and calling for "alternatives to failed polices."

Among their suggestions: work to repeal mandatory minimum sentences, and
divert non-violent drug offenders into treatment programs. "The National
Black Caucus of State Legislators made history last weekend by passing a
resolution that both condemns the war on drugs and commits the lawmakers to
developing alternatives," said a statement to the media. "The resolution
was sponsored by Delegate Salima Marriott of Maryland. Specifically, it
singles out issues like reform of mandatory minimum sentences and diversion
of nonviolent drug offenders into treatment."

The resolution states, in part, "The war on drugs has failed and while
states have continually increased their expenditures to wage the war on
drugs, policies which rely heavily on arrest and incarceration have proved
costly and ineffective at addressing these issues."

The move was echoed by others. "The war on drugs is failing everybody, but
no one is being devastated by it like African Americans," said Michael
Blain, director of public policy at the Drug Policy Alliance. "That's why
it's so historic that the people who represent the communities who have the
most to gain from reform are taking the lead in addressing this problem,
and finding solutions."

Critics of the war on drugs point out the extreme racial disparities in
application of drug laws. According to Human Rights Watch, while Blacks and
whites have similar rates of drug use, Blacks go to jail at 13 times the
rate of whites. Although African Americans comprise only 12.2 percent of
the population, they make up 38 percent of those arrested for drug offenses
and 59 percent of those convicted of drug offenses.

In New York, 93 percent of those incarcerated under the state's Rockefeller
drug laws are African American and Latino. The resolution says: "The war on
drugs has failed: every community in the U.S. contends with the harmful
effects of drug misuse and related problems, and while states have
continually increased their expenditures to wage the war on drugs, policies
which rely heavily on arrest and incarceration have proved costly and
ineffective at addressing these issues," said the statement from Black
lawmakers.

"The war on drugs is a major force driving the incarceration of over 2.1
million people in the United States, with African Americans
disproportionately represented in our country's overflowing jails and
prisons and the war on drugs perpetuates mandatory minimums, felony
disfranchisement, disproportionate over-incarceration, poor access to
health care, under funded public education, widespread unemployment, and
the general criminalization of communities of color in the U.S. "And paying
for the war on drugs means spending limited tax dollars on failed policies
instead of proven solutions. Americans spend approxi- mately $140 billion
annually on prisons and jails including $24 billion spent on incarcerating
over 1.2 million non-violent offenders. In many states (such as New York
and California), spending on prisons far surpasses spending on education."

The legislators also noted the need for "access to affordable
community-based drug treatment, along with educational and economic
opportunities,"which have shown to be successful at reducing the harms of
drug misuse, "yet more than half of those Americans in need of drug
treatment do not have access to it."

African Americans are less likely to sell or misuse illicit drugs than
white Americans, said the Black lawmakers "but African Americans experience
highly dis- proportionate levels of death, disease, crime and suffering due
both to drug misuse and to misguided drug policies."

The resolution also noted: "our common goal is to advocate those policies
which increase the health and welfare of our communities, and to reduce the
unacceptable racial disparities both in criminal justice and in access to
drug treatment and other services."

The legislations vowed to take steps to reduce the incarceration of
non-violent offenders and increase the availability of treatment because
"it not only makes fiscal sense, but is sound public policy that is being
implemented in states throughout the country (such as Maryland and
California)."

The 28th annual Legislative Conference of the National Black Caucus of
State Legislastors met in Philadephia. Attendees also called for ways to
ensure that new legislation includes "quantifiable, measurable goals, and
is measured by a standard that reduces the effects of substance abuse and
addiction and the harm of unjust drug policies while increasing public
safety, thereby creating a New Bottom Line.

They also want to create state task forces "to research and report on the
allocation of state expenditures for all public education and health
services and the war on drugs so that states can understand the real cost
of the war on drugs in the state budgets and in their communities and work
with the Drug Policy Alliance to create seminars that provide a thorough
overview on harm reduction principles and legislative reform initiatives."

They also want to advance a drug policy agenda that prioritizes a public
health, not a criminal justice approach, to drug policy.