Criminalization is driving the overdose crisis:

Criminalization creates stigma and fear of punishment which prevents people from seeking support and pushes people to use alone so they have no help in an overdose emergency.
Criminalization makes the drug supply less safe, resulting in an unregulated drug market with unknown, adulterated substances that put people at greater risk of overdose.
Criminalization wastes resources on arrest, incarceration, and punishment instead of investing in critical health, overdose prevention, and harm reduction services that are proven to save lives.
Tougher penalties create perverse incentives for manufacturers. Underground chemists have found new ways of evading enhanced penalties. This has led to more potent forms of fentanyl that are more likely to cause overdose deaths.
Incarceration can result in a person losing their tolerance to drugs. So, if they are not ready to get sober and go right back to using drugs when they get out of the program, they have a much higher likelihood of experiencing a fatal overdose.
People die due to overdoes in prison at high rates (and treatment or medications for substance use disorder are rarely available in prison). From 2001 to 2018, the number of people who have died of drug or alcohol intoxication in state prisons increased by more than 600%
For more than 50 years, the U.S. has been criminalizing people for using drugs and overdose has not decreased. In fact, it’s skyrocketing.

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More from @DrugPolicyOrg

31 Aug
Want to prevent overdose? #DecriminalizeDrugs and invest in health services. Let’s chat this Overdose Awareness Day. -> A thread.🧵

In 2020, overdose deaths increased by 30%, killing more than 93,000 Americans—the highest ever on record. 1/9
The criminalization of drugs is driving the overdose crisis, making it almost impossible to save lives even though overdose is preventable. 2/9
Drug offenses are the leading cause of arrests in the U.S. For more than 50 years, we’ve used criminalization to deter drug use, yet overdose is skyrocketing. 3/9
Read 9 tweets
9 Mar
On March 13th, 2020, Breonna Taylor was killed in her home by police officers during a no-knock raid.

The drug war is the primary reason for Breonna’s tragic death.

Read the timeline and how the drug war caused it 👇(THREAD) 1/
drugpolicy.medium.com/e931d33c6728
In early 2020, Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover was under investigation for drug trafficking & Louisville police officers had been building a case for months.

This was due to The Controlled Substances Act, enacted in 1970, launching the drug war in the U.S. 2/
March 12, 2020: A “no-knock” search warrant was issued for Breonna Taylor’s address because law enforcement claimed to have evidence that ex-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover received packages there. 3/
Read 9 tweets
17 Feb
The drug war has infested six critical systems: child welfare, employment, public benefits, immigration, housing, and education. The harmful impacts are very real. THREAD 🧵

#UprootTheDrugWar / uprootingthedrugwar.org Image
The drug war breaks up families and removes children from their homes. Mandatory reporting is NOT a reflection of whether someone is a good parent. It increases distrust between patients and their doctors and leads to family separation. #UprootTheDrugWar Image
The drug war robs livelihoods and limits access to stable employment. Drug testing applicants and employees have NO effect on workplace safety and productivity. Off-the-clock use is not an employment issue. #UprootTheDrugWar Image
Read 8 tweets
11 Jun 20
We're starting soon, please join us! bit.ly/DPACOVIDSeries3 Follow along this thread for live tweets. #DPACOVIDSeries
Kima Taylor of @urbaninstitute shares her issue with how treatment is framed as solving a problem & how that ignores the history of racism and other forms of oppression. #DPACOVIDSeries
Kima Taylor of @urbaninstitute challenges us to widen our frame of understanding what treatment is. Lots of people don't need what we call treatment and treatment can encompass a lot of services. #DPACOVIDSeries
Read 57 tweets
29 Aug 19
We share the @Surgeon_General's concerns about keeping adolescents & pregnant people safe & healthy. However, we are concerned that his presentation didn’t clearly depict the latest trends because rates of marijuana use among these groups have remained stable or decreased. THREAD
The 2018 Monitoring the Future survey suggests that #marijuana use among 8th, 10th, & 12th graders remains low & stable “despite the changing state marijuana laws during this time period."
According to @SAMHSAgov’s 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health released last week, marijuana use among adolescents aged 12-17 has remained low & stable since 2015. Use among adults 18-25 years old stayed stable in 2017 & 2018. Only increases were among adults aged 26+.
Read 9 tweets

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