Drug Policy Alliance

Friend,

It’s International Overdose Awareness Day, and we at the Drug Policy Alliance remember the many lives lost and continue our fight to end this preventable crisis. We send our deepest condolences to anyone who has lost a loved one to overdose.

Last year drug overdose deaths in the U.S. increased by more than 30%, killing more than 94,000 people — the highest ever on record.

The criminalization of drugs is driving this overdose crisis, making it almost impossible to save lives even though overdose is preventable.

Drug offenses are the leading cause of arrests in the U.S. For more than 50 years, we’ve used criminalization to deter drug use, yet overdose is skyrocketing.
Having a criminal record is a huge obstacle to achieving recovery — it can impact your ability to pass a background check for a job or new home, it can lead to deportation and family separation, and so much more.
Criminalization wastes resources on arrest, incarceration, and punishment instead of harm reduction and other health-services that are proven to save lives.
Drug criminalization pushes people into risky situations. The fear of punishment prevents people from seeking support and pushes people to use alone so they have no help in an overdose emergency.
Criminalization makes the drug supply unregulated and unsafe. Unregulated markets result in drug users being unaware of the contents and purity of the drugs they use.
Few people in jails/prisons get access to needed medications like methadone or buprenorphine, which puts them at high risk of overdose after release. From 2001-18, the number of people who have died of drug or alcohol intoxication in state prisons increased by more than 600%.

Drug criminalization is deadly. Overdose is preventable only if drug use is treated as a health issue instead of a crime.

To help end the overdose crisis, we must decriminalize drugs and invest in health services to give people who use drugs the support and dignity they deserve.

Join us in demanding change. Here are 3 ways you can help:

Today we hope you will take a moment to commemorate the people we’ve lost to overdose and commit to helping us end this crisis and the drug war that drives it.

Sincerely,

Brian Pacheco
Managing Director, Communications & Marketing