| TopNews |
| Gil Kerlikowske would love for you to believe the War On Drugs is a huge success. Can’t you just do that for Gil today? Come on now, can’t you? |
Message from NYers: No More Drug War
Drug War = Mass Incarceration, Racial Disparities and Overdose Epidemic
White House Drug Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske and New York County DA Cyrus R. Vance Jr. will visit Washington Heights in New York City on Thursday, September 22, to discuss their supposed “progress” in fighting the War On Drugs.
A group of New Yorkers will be greeting the Drug Czar and DA with the message: No More Drug War. When Kerlikowske came into office, he announced that he was ending the War On Drugs. This turned out to be little more than a rhetorical sleight-of-hand, however – astronomical rates of drug arrests and incarceration have not changed.
| Hiawatha Collins, VOCAL-NY: “When it comes to the war on drugs, the Drug Czar says one thing publicly while pursuing the same old failed policies” |
”When it comes to the war on drugs, the Drug Czar says one thing publicly while pursuing the same old failed policies,” said Hiawatha Collins, a VOCAL-NY leader. “The gap between their rhetoric and reality is filled with millions of people who have been arrested for nonviolent drug offenses since Obama took office. The drug war equals mass incarceration, racial disparities and an overdose epidemic.”
What: Protest at Drug Czar Washington Heights Event
Who: Members of VOCAL, New Yorkers who believe we need an alternatives to the failed Drug War
When: Thursday, September 22, 8:45 a.m.
Where: The Armory- Track and Field Center
216 Fort Washington Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10032
Why:
· The United States locks up more people – both per capita and in total — than anywhere in the world. We have almost 5 percent of the world population, yet nearly 25 percent of the prison population.
· According to an FBI report released this week, police made more than 750,000 marijuana possession arrests nationwide in 2010.
· The NYPD arrested more than 50,000 people for low-level marijuana offenses in 2010. Eighty-six percent of those people were black and Latino, although government research consistently shows that whites use and sell marijuana at the same rates as blacks and Latinos.
· There is an overdose epidemic with more people dying from preventable opiate overdoses than from car accidents. The drug czar’s prescription drug abuse plan, however, does not include the two most proven, effective ways to reduce overdose deaths – expanding access to the overdose reversal drug, Naloxone, and passing “911 Good Samaritan” laws that encourage people to call for medical help without fear of arrest and prosecution. (Just last month, New York became the fourth state to pass such a law.)
