Friend,
Tomorrow is election day, and the outcome will have critical implications for drug policy nationwide. If you haven’t voted yet, find your polling place and get more information on voting in your state here.
Throughout the presidential election, supporters like you helped us pressure the candidates to present a plan for how they would end the overdose crisis, save lives, and strengthen communities. Unfortunately, neither Harris nor Trump offered evidence-based solutions to the issues facing our loved ones at the scale we need. Instead, we saw them use fentanyl as a talking point to compete for who could appear toughest on immigration and the border, doubling down on punitive approaches that have failed us in the past.
When over 100,000 people are dying of preventable overdoses every year and nearly half of Americans have lost someone they know to overdose, it is time to move beyond political theater. The issues we fight for are deeply personal to most Americans – people want and deserve health solutions for the real dangers posed by addiction, overdose, and fentanyl.
Though neither presidential campaign presented a clear plan for addressing the overdose crisis, their agendas differ on key issues that will shape drug policy for years to come. Before you cast your vote tomorrow, make sure you read our candidate fact sheets to see where they stand.
Additionally, in certain states like California, drug policy will literally be on the ballot.
Californians should vote NO on Prop 36: a dangerous ballot initiative that would increase criminal penalties for drug possession, impose lengthy sentences, and divert resources from treatment. Corporate interests are trying to roll back the clock on a health-based approach to the overdose crisis. They are selling a false bill of goods to California voters rather than addressing the real concerns they have about their communities. Decades of these kinds of costly “lock ‘em up” policies have shown us that treating addiction like a criminal problem instead of a health issue doesn’t work. In California and across the country, we will keep fighting for
health, not harm.
Voting is one way to shape the political terrain we operate on. But political candidates don’t build movements, people do. Ending the drug war, repairing its harms, and creating a world that upholds the health, safety, and dignity of all people won’t be delivered from up above. It’s up to us to turn the tide.
Thank you for being with us in this fight,
