FED POLICY HURTS INNOCENT PEOPLE

Barbara Hill and Willie Lee, who have lived in their apartments for more
than a decade, can now be evicted because, unbeknownst to them, their
grandsons were found smoking pot in the parking lot of their public housing
complex in Oakland, Calif.

They are part of the ever-increasing crowd of innocent victims of the war
on drugs, a war no longer fought exclusively in prisons and police
stations, but in the expanding realm of denying people their most basic
needs, such as shelter.

The Supreme Court held last week that the federal government's one-strike
policy of evicting families for one member's or a guest's drug use was
legitimate, whether or not the tenant knew of the drug-related activity and
regardless of where the drug use occurred.

In New York City alone, hundreds of families face eviction every month as a
result of the one-strike policy.

Like so much of our failed war on drugs, this policy targets the poor.
Public housing is in most cases the only safe and affordable place for
low-income families to live.

But the policy does not apply to wealthy occupants of public housing. Jeb
Bush and his family are not in danger of losing their public housing,
although the Florida governor's daughter recently illegally obtained
prescription drugs.

The war on drugs has long perverted our criminal justice system, epitomized
by mandatory 10- and 15-year sentences for drug possession, a nonviolent
and victimless crime.

The drug war is increasingly undermining our civil justice and social
service system as well.

The federal government has increasingly passed laws that allow drug use or
a drug conviction to disqualify an entire family from assistance - public
housing, education loans, food stamps and other welfare benefits.

For example, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act, passed in 1996, permanently bars those with
drug-related felony convictions from receiving federal cash assistance and
food stamps during their lifetime.

These policies defy the strong public support for treating rather than
punishing people who have drug problems by addressing drug abuse first and
foremost as a public health problem, not a law enforcement problem.

Families struggling with drug abuse should be offered treatment and other
services so they can regain stability and become self-supporting. They
should not have to overcome additional hurdles to obtain the most
fundamental necessities of life.

Transitional financial assistance, a safe home and access to education
would help these individuals and their families integrate themselves
successfully into society.

Lee and Hill are but a few examples of the way lives of innocent people are
tragically affected by a misguided war on drugs - which, as their stories
illustrate, is largely a war on ordinary citizens.