Dear Friend,
At the Drug Policy Alliance, our aim is to end the drug war, repair its harms, and build a better approach to drugs grounded in health, equity, and human rights. Thanks to your support, and the support of a network of 130,668 individuals like you across the country, each day we work to change laws, advance justice, and save lives.
2025 was a difficult year. Lifesaving, health-based responses to fentanyl and the overdose crisis—including healthcare, access to treatment, and naloxone—faced significant funding cuts. This forced medical, treatment, and service providers to scale back services or shut down entirely.
At the same time, fear of fentanyl was used to weaken democratic norms, escalate international conflicts, and broaden the criminalization of communities across the United States. The result was a troubling contradiction: promises of safety were undermined by the erosion of the very tools proven to help communities stay alive, safer, and healthier.
Despite these enormous challenges, DPA kept moving forward — standing up for lifesaving programs, stopping harmful policies, and laying the groundwork for future reform. Over the course of the year, supporters like you took 36,140 actions to defend health-based solutions and push back against failed drug war policies.
That’s because the evidence is undeniable. In the one-year period ending in May 2025, overdose deaths dropped by 27% — representing nearly 30,000 lives saved. This progress affirms what we have long known: the health-centered approaches that DPA advocates for work. More punishment and defunding health services does not.
Here are some of the ways you helped lead the movement for health-based, people-first drug policy reform in 2025:
TREATING DRUG USE AS A HEALTH ISSUE
Criminalization remains the foundation of the drug war, diverting billions into punishment while communities increasingly struggle to access care. In 2025, DPA fought to protect and expand evidence-based health responses. We engaged supporters from all 435 Congressional districts, who contacted their members of Congress as these policies came under direct attack.
With your support, we:
===Coordinated with allies across the country and across issues, to thwart the worst of the federal funding cuts to health and overdose prevention services. This included cuts to Medicaid – the largest U.S. payer of addiction treatment.
===Developed a public tool to track the billions of dollars in federal funding cuts for drug research, overdose prevention, and drug treatment, and their projected long-term impact. This ensures lawmakers and the general public have factual information on the impacts of these cuts.
===Educated policymakers about effective solutions to substances like fentanyl, such as increasing access to naloxone and medications that reduce opioid overdose risk. These solutions have contributed to the recent overdose death declines of the last three years.
===Released a new report, “From Crisis to Care: Addressing Addiction, Mental Health, and Homelessness Through Health and Supportive Services.” This critical – and timely – resource was viewed by 2,550 advocates, helping them defend proven solutions that promote community health and safety.
===Advanced landmark legislation in California to allow judges to offer treatment instead of incarceration for certain felony drug charges, because we know most Americans see drug use as a health issue, not a crime.
ADVACNING EQUITY, HEALTH, AND JUSTICE THROUGH MARIJUANA REGULATION
While momentum for marijuana reform continues, the harms of prohibition persist — people can still be denied housing or jobs, even deported, for possession. In 2025, DPA remained the movement’s leader to legalize marijuana with equity and justice at the center, while ensuring good public health — mobilizing 8,949 supporters to take action on marijuana reform nationwide.
Together, we:
===Fought to end federal marijuana criminalization and repair its harms by working with Congress to strengthen and reintroduce the MORE Act. This legislation would clear records, remove housing and employment barriers, expand research, and increase access to medical marijuana.
===Pushed for a fair and inclusive marijuana industry that doesn’t leave people behind. We secured equity-focused amendments to federal marijuana banking legislation and advanced protections for small, independent, and community-based producers.
===Centered public health, racial equity, and accountability in marijuana policy by releasing a major report on lessons learned from state reforms. It offers clear recommendations to protect public health, sustain a justice-oriented approach, and ensure an equitable industry.
===Pressed for full federal descheduling so people are no longer punished for marijuana use. We continued to call on the administration to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act once and for all.
PROMOTING FAMILY SAFETY AND ECONOMIC SECURITY
The drug war reaches far beyond arrests — driving family separation, housing instability, and food insecurity. In 2025, DPA worked to dismantle these civil punishments.
You helped us:
===Advance the RESTORE Act to repeal the cruel ban on food stamps for people with drug convictions – the only type of felony that carries this restriction. We built bipartisan support, and attached the act to the Farm Bill.
===Launch a campaign to repeal the Thurmond Amendment, which denies housing protections to people with certain drug convictions.
===Provide policy analysis to reproductive justice partners to help prevent the misuse of drug laws to criminalize abortion medications and protect access to essential reproductive care.
MAXIMIZING DPA'S IMPACT TO MEET NEW CHALLENGES
As attacks on drug policy reform intensified, DPA invested in research, coalition-building, and long-term strategy to meet this moment.
In 2025, we:
===Expanded organizing in the South by convening reform leaders from across the region for the first time to build a shared strategy, strengthen coordination, and accelerate reform in states long harmed by the drug war.
===Called for safety and stability in the U.S., exposing how the drug war is used to fuel international violence while health services are being gutted for Americans at home.
===Hosted the 2025 International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Detroit, bringing together more than 1,600 drug policy advocates to set the agenda for what comes next.
===Engaged more than 4,400 people through online webinars, trainings, and briefings — strengthening a nationwide network of advocates ready to protect health-based solutions and advance reform.
Friend, as you can see, 2025 brought serious challenges — but also undeniable proof that health-centered drug policy saves lives.
Thank you for being with us. With your support, we are defending what works, pushing back against dangerous policies, and building a future where people can thrive — whether or not they use drugs.
And we aren’t stopping.
-Drug Policy Alliance
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