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| Friend, Tomorrow the U.S. House will vote on a bill allowing the Drug Enforcement Administration to expand harsh mandatory minimum sentencing for fentanyl-related substances. We know the drug war doesn’t work. And we need your help to convince Congress that putting even more people behind bars is not the answer. Tell your U.S. Representative to stand against harsh drug penalties. Last year, Congress gave the DEA authority to enact “class-wide” emergency scheduling of fentanyl-related substances. Now Congress is trying to extend it even though it has done little to curb deaths due to the overdose crisis. Overdose deaths are preventable. Yet instead of prioritizing life-saving solutions, Congress is doubling down on the failed, punitive drug war policies of the past that disproportionately hurt people of color and individuals at the lower-levels of drug distribution chains. Giving the DEA more power to ban drugs and creating tougher drug penalties is a backwards approach that will only ruin more lives, put more people behind bars, and create more risk for those vulnerable to overdose. This is also misguided considering many lawmakers now support scaling back mass incarceration, including passage just one year ago of the bipartisan First Step Act that eased the length of some drug sentencing laws. We must break the cycle in which the criminal justice system is the default response to drug problems, rather than public health solutions that can save lives. Now we have a chance to tell Congress to do it: take action to oppose tough drug sentencing.
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