During this unprecedented public health crisis, we hope you are staying safe and taking precautions to protect yourselves and our communities. We’re collaborating closely with our allies to provide resources and demand action from policymakers to help those who are most at risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19.
Immediate steps can and must be taken to fight this pandemic on behalf of our community members – people who are incarcerated, detained, or homeless and people with substance use disorder and those that rely on access to medication-assisted treatment or medical marijuana.
We are urging policymakers to reduce incarceration and immigrant detention capacity, stop minor arrests, and ensure continued access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) and medical marijuana.
Demand that your Governor take these critical steps to save lives and stop the spread of COVID-19.
We must decarcerate and reduce capacity in jails, prisons and immigrant detention centers by releasing older people and others that pose no risk to public safety.
We must decriminalize and halt the arrest and prosecution of people for minor offenses like drug possession.
We must dignify the needs of people who rely on life-saving harm reduction services, medication-assisted treatment, or medical marijuana by ensuring they have access.
We must take action to urge our Governors to implement these precautions immediately.
Time is running out to take those most at risk of contracting COVID-19 out of harm’s way and free up important public safety resources to assist with this ongoing crisis.
There have already been positive steps in the right direction. Some jurisdictions are releasing vulnerable people from prisons and declining to arrest or prosecute minor drug charges. Some legal medical marijuana dispensaries are being designated as “essential services,” so patients can access their life-saving medicine during shutdowns. And strict restrictions have been relaxed on opioid addiction medications methadone and buprenorphine so that some patients can take home up to 4 weeks of supplies, eliminating the requirement to visit clinics daily for doses.
But we must do more to protect each other. COVID-19 is an escalating crisis that is affecting all of us. And the only way to reduce the harms is to ensure the health and safety of everyone, especially those most at risk, as soon as possible.
Please stand with us by contacting your Governor right away.
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Sincerely, Kassandra Frederique Managing Director, Policy Advocacy and Campaigns Drug Policy Alliance |
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