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| January Newsletter |
| Congress Eliminates Student Aid Barriers for People with Convictions |
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In December, Congress passed an omnibus spending package which included provisions to lift decades-long bans on student financial aid for people behind bars and for those with drug convictions, measures that DPA and our partners fought for, and that will have a lasting impact on people’s lives.
The bill reinstates Pell Grants for people behind bars, lifting the 1994 Crime Bill ban on federal financial aid for students in prisons. It also repeals the 1998 Aid Elimination Penalty, a federal law that made students ineligible for federal financial aid if they had been convicted of a drug crime (also known as the “drug question” on the federal student aid, or FAFSA, form).
“Congress imposed these restrictions during the 1990s escalation of the drug war and tough-on-crime era, and in the years since, thousands of students who rely on federal aid have been denied educational opportunities increasingly essential to successful employment,” said Grant Smith, Deputy Director of DPA's Office of National Affairs. “Studies have confirmed time and again that these policies harm a person’s ability to successfully transition back into their communities and deny them the basic human right to learn and improve their quality of life.”
DPA has been advocating for these reforms for many years, most recently with our partners in the #EquityIsJustice collaboration hosted by College & Community Fellowship. This collaboration centers the advocacy of directly impacted people with lived experience. Prior to COVID-19 lockdown orders, DPA was regularly bringing dozens of formerly incarcerated people and others who had been denied federal aid to meet with legislators and advocate for the repeal of the ban, transitioning to virtually connecting formerly incarcerated advocates with legislators and holding briefings and meetings leading up to the vote.
The passage of this bill is a huge step towards abolishing the drug war logic that has corrupted systems and institutions far beyond the criminal legal system.
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Cuomo Announces New York Marijuana Legalization Push
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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that he will pursue legislation in 2021 to establish a legal market for marijuana in New York, which would effectively end marijuana prohibition in the state and create a system to tax and regulate it in a manner similar to alcohol for adults over the age of 21.
Over the past twenty years, New York was the marijuana arrest capital, with 800,000 low-level marijuana possession arrests – more than any other state.
During his remarks on the first day of the legislative session, Governor Cuomo said enacting the reform is necessary in 2021.
DPA and the Start SMART NY Coalition have been instrumental in urging Gov. Cuomo to move forward with legalization in New York – and pushing the Governor to legalize the right way in New York. Legislation to legalize marijuana for adult use has been pending in the legislature since 2013 when Sen. Krueger and Assembly Majority Leader Peoples-Stokes introduced the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act. Governor Cuomo has included his own legalization proposal in the state budget during the last two legislative sessions.
Following Cuomo’s latest announcement, Melissa Moore, DPA’s New York State Director and a leader within the Start SMART NY Coalition, said:
“Governor Cuomo and the legislature can cement New York as the national model for marijuana legalization by centering community reinvestment, equity, and justice within our comprehensive reform. We can do this by making our legalization effort one that benefits those who have been harmed by prohibition and focusing on creating equitable jobs and small businesses across the state as New York looks to recover from the pandemic. Given New York’s appalling history with racially-biased marijuana enforcement, we must be bold and innovative in creating justice and equity.”
Learn more. |
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| Building Our New World: DPA's Year in Review |
2020 was quite the year. It was defined by novel challenges and escalating uncertainty, but our movement stayed the course, exceeded our own expectations, and broke new ground.
From passing marijuana legalization in several states, to widening syringe access in California, to decriminalizing all drugs in Oregon, it was a year of significant progress for DPA, our members, and our allies.
In this short piece, Kassandra Frederique, DPA’s Executive Director, looks back on some of the monumental accomplishments that we fought for over the past year.
Read the article.
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| DPA Clips, Podcasts, and Stories |
| Washington, D.C., Decriminalizes Drug Paraphernalia |
On December 22, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the Opioid Overdose Treatment and Prevention Omnibus Amendment Act of 2020. This omnibus bill includes language that removes criminal penalties for possession of drug paraphernalia for personal use and allows community-based organizations to distribute desperately needed harm reduction supplies - such as safer snorting and smoking kits - previously criminalized under DC’s strict paraphernalia laws.
“Advocates and local providers have long fought for drug paraphernalia to be decriminalized in the District. Criminalization stands in the way of ending the preventable spread of infectious diseases and overdose deaths amongst Washingtonians who use drugs,” says Queen Adesuyi, Policy Manager for the Office of National Affairs at Drug Policy Alliance. “Judiciary Chairman Charles Allen’s leadership and D.C. Council’s unanimous vote to decriminalize and expand access to sterile harm reduction supplies will save lives by appropriately centering the health needs of people who use drugs at a time when COVID-19 is horrifically worsening risks.”
Enforcement of paraphernalia laws in the District have been racially biased, with Black people making up over 80% of arrests. While decriminalizing drug paraphernalia alone will not end racially biased or targeted policing, it takes away yet another law enforcement tool that has historically and disproportionately impacted D.C.’s Black communities.
DPA and other allied organizations will continue to work with the D.C. Council, Mayor Bowser, and other local policymakers to shift drug policies away from criminalization towards public health-centered approaches that treat people who use drugs with dignity and compassion.
Read more. |
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| Despite an Overdose Crisis Exacerbated by COVID-19, Court Blocks Supervised Consumption Sites |
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit released their opinion in the United States v. Safehouse case, reversing the lower court’s decision, and concluding that proposed supervised consumption sites violate federal law.
Lindsay LaSalle, Managing Director of Policy for the Drug Policy Alliance, released the following statement:
“As the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating the already devastating overdose crisis, the Third Circuit’s reversal of the earlier court's decision—which held that safe consumption sites do not violate federal law—will inevitably result in the unnecessary loss of countless lives.
The Third Circuit’s decision is misguided -- it is abundantly clear that Congress never intended to criminalize legitimate public health interventions through Section 856 of the Controlled Substances Act. The Drug Policy Alliance has been advocating for Congress to affirm this position and will now also be looking to the new Biden administration to issue guidance to the Department of Justice to refrain from prosecuting proposed supervised consumption sites like Safehouse that offer a critical intervention point of care.
In the meantime, other jurisdictions are not bound by the Third Circuit decision. Advocates across the country--from San Francisco to New York City--should continue to work toward authorization and implementation of supervised consumption sites to address the overdose crisis in their cities and states.”
Learn more. |
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| New CDC Data Shows Highest Overdose Death Count in History |
There were nearly 80,000 overdose deaths during the twelve months leading up to May 2020, with overdose rates increasing in nearly every state, according to new provisional data from the CDC.
The overdose crisis continues to claim lives at an alarming rate, and it has become clear that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated risk conditions for people who use drugs. It is crucial that more is done to address these overlapping health crises.
Sheila Vakharia, PhD MSW, Deputy Director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement at DPA, released the following statement:
“These numbers include the first three months of the pandemic, when increasing jurisdictions were in lockdown, showing thousands more deaths per month than the same time period last year. These numbers are an early glimpse of what we can expect to see for the remainder of 2020 and perhaps in 2021 as well.
It is clear that more can and must be done, and so we are urging the incoming Biden administration to prioritize a health-centered approach over past punitive approaches that have failed our communities. Instead of increasing access to care, our policies have often served to criminalize, incarcerate, and neglect our most vulnerable. This data shows us that the solution is clear - we must divest from these failed interventions of the past and instead increase access to the services we know are effective, like harm reduction and medications for substance use disorder.”
Read Dr. Vakharia's full statement and analysis of the data. |
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