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| Friend, Earlier this year, Congress and President Biden extended a terrible Trump-era policy increasing the use of severe mandatory minimum sentences for fentanyl-related substances. If you already know why this is harmful, please urge President Biden to let the policy expire and pursue a public health approach instead. This racist, ineffective policy expires this October, and the White House is expected to make a recommendation soon about how to proceed on this issue, so it’s important he hears from you ASAP. What’s the problem with this policy? First, research shows that prosecutors are twice as likely to pursue a mandatory minimum sentence for Black people as for white people charged with the same offense. Second, for more than 50 years, the U.S. has been criminalizing people for using drugs and overdose has not decreased. In fact, it’s skyrocketing. We are all concerned about overdose. But we know that harsher punishments for drugs will not solve the overdose crisis. Instead of doubling down on enforcement, we need a public health solution. Tell President Biden to let the policy expire, stop ramping up harsh penalties for drugs, and pursue a public health approach instead. The Biden administration has also made commitments and promises to take drug policy in a new direction by ending mandatory minimums and embracing overdose prevention and harm reduction instead of punishment. But that’s not what is happening. When it comes to fentanyl, the administration has given into drug war hysteria and is repeating the tough-on-crime, racist drug laws similar to the laws passed around crack-cocaine in the 1980’s. The Biden administration can fulfill its promise of embracing health-services for overdose prevention by letting the misguided fentanyl policy expire and instead back the Support, Treatment, and Overdose Prevention of Fentanyl Act (STOP Fentanyl Act) in Congress. This bill is a public health approach to fentanyl that will save lives and provide evidence-based support to people at risk of overdose. We can’t let Biden go backwards on drug policy. Urge him to prioritize public health rather than repeating the mistakes of the past and ramping up punishment.
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