Drug warriors are cheating us with Prop. 36 – and they've been lying to us for decades – Orange County Register

This November, California voters will decide whether they want people convicted of drug possession and petty theft for a third time to be treated as felons and sent to state prison for years. opponents of Prop. 36 have recommended This cruel and counterproductive ballot measure represents a “return” to the war on drugs the most American now object.

In fact, the war on drugs never ended. Worse, the advocacy groups behind the War on Drugs now pushing Prop. 36 have known for decades that criminalizing drug use is counterproductive.

Fifty years of the drug war have bloated our prisons and jails; separated tens of millions Children from their parents; and shortened people's lives through a combination Millions of years. However, there are overdose deaths vicinity record Maximum values, overall, is drug consumption UprisingDrugs are increasing potentand there is scholarly consensus that it involves drug arrests and prison sentences have no positive effects on drug use. Actually research shows that drug seizures increase Overdose deaths.

And yet police all over the country Despite it arrest More people for drug possession than for any other “crime.” Even now, 87% Most drug arrests involve possession of drugs for personal use. In Orange County, where I live, prosecutors have filed more possession charges in recent years Drug paraphernalia than for any other offense. Despite the shift in rhetoric from California Democrats, they have not turned away from the war on drugs.

So why not? She?

Because reducing drug use and overdose deaths were never the goal of the drug war. Their purpose has always been to exploit existing fears and prejudices to easily score political points. As one of the top advisors to President Nixon, who later started the drug war approved: “We knew we could make it illegal not to be either anti-war or anti-black, but by getting the public to associate hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin.” [a]And then if we heavily criminalize both, we could vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we lied about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Today's fears are based on the very real opioid crisis and today's prejudices against the homeless. Drug warriors are taking advantage of this discomfort with visible poverty, even though the reality is like that criminalization aggravated homelessness And Only housing solves the problem.

To impress upon well-meaning voters the purpose of the drug war policy, its supporters have often tried to rename it “treatment.” Proponents of Prop. 36 spread the lie that it will provide greater access to drug treatment by allowing people who complete programming to avoid the criminal consequences that Prop. 36 brings. This is nonsense: Prop. 36 actually defunds drug treatment.

In addition, drug treatment is forced under the threat of imprisonment already a standard condition for pretrial release, probation, parole, diversion programs, and more. Compulsory treatment, in other words, is a central feature of the disastrous war on drugs and not a step away from it. Than the research confirmedit doesn't work.