Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Ask Your Senator to Treat Drug Addiction as a Health Issue, Not a Crime

When asked last July by Rolling Stone magazine if he would continue the "war on drugs" or make significant changes in course, then-candidate Barack Obama said, “I believe in shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more on a public-health approach.”

Right now we have an opportunity to make this well-founded position a reality by sending a strong message to the U.S. Senate, which will soon be holding a confirmation hearing for the new White House "drug czar."

Please take one minute to send the message below, asking that the hearing be held by the committee that oversees operation of our country’s health care, instead of by the Judiciary Committee, which handles crime and which has historically handled the confirmations.

Treating drug use as a criminal justice issue hasn’t deterred drug use, but it has filled our prisons and clogged our courts. We know the Obama administration agrees, at least rhetorically. Let’s ask our senators to make this needed shift a reality.

February 09, 2010

Subject:

Senator,

As your constituent, I’m writing to express my concern that our nation needs a new direction in our drug control policies, one that recognizes that drug addiction is primarily a health issue and not a criminal justice problem.

Soon the U.S. Senate will hold confirmation hearings for President Obama’s nominee for Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske. I feel strongly that the confirmation hearing should be moved from the Judiciary Committee, where these hearings have historically been held, to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, since the latter is clearly a more appropriate venue to discuss solutions to a public health problem.

The U.S. spends tens of billions of dollars every year arresting and prosecuting millions of Americans under the failed "war on drugs."  And yet, drugs are generally cheaper, more potent and more available than at any point in history. In fact, a World Health Organization survey of 17 countries found that the United States has the highest rates of marijuana and cocaine use, despite enforcing some of the worlds most punitive drug policies. Decades of treating drug abuse as a crime issue through harsh penalties and incarcerating drug users haven’t deterred drug use, but it has filled our prisons and our clogged courts. We’re wasting money and ruining lives.

I applaud President Barack Obama for his discerning choice in appointing Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and for his support for “shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more on a public-health approach,” as he told Rolling Stone magazine in July, 2008.

My hope is that, under Chief Kerlikowske’s leadership, there will be a shift in drug policy from arrest and prosecution to intervention and treatment. His record in Seattle, a city with some of the most forward-thinking drug policies in the nation, indicates that he will be the kind of leader we need right now.

Please support this much-needed shift in drug policy by helping to facilitate the transfer of the Senate confirmation hearings for ONDCP director from the Judiciary Committee to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

This move would codify the necessary shift from our ineffective approach of managing the nation's drug abuse and addiction issues as a crime problem to a new public health paradigm for drug control, which the president and many lawmakers have already supported, at least rhetorically.

This is a serious issue with real consequences that we cannot afford to ignore, and it’s time to turn the rhetoric into reality.

I look forward to reading your thoughts on the new directions that are needed for our nation’s drug control strategy. Thanks in advance for your attention to this important matter.

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Dedicated to our departed colleagues who courageously spoke out about the destructive policy of Drug Prohibition
Eleanor Schockett	Gil Puder	Whitman Knapp	John Perry	Ralph Salerno	Bob Owens	Eddie Ellison	Martin Haines