|
| |
Dear Friend,
Right now, everyone is talking about crime and violence. And our opponents are lying and scapegoating people who use drugs in order to roll back lifesaving drug policy reform and instead increase criminalization.
We all deserve safety. At the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), we know that the safest places in America have access to the things people need to thrive, such as jobs, education, housing, and healthcare. This is the world we’re trying to create. They don’t have more police, more jails, more prisons, and harsher sentences.
Yet powerful opponents continue the “drug war playbook” by lying, trying to convince you that criminalization is needed. From its earliest days, the war on drugs has been sold to the public using fear tactics about crime and safety with a promise to stop drug use. But what you and I have borne witness to is a drug war harming our loved ones and communities: mass incarceration; stronger forms of drugs; a growing overdose crisis; and loss of housing, employment, and even lifesaving medicine.
Not only does criminalization not prevent crime, but it saddles people with lifelong obstacles to the very things they need to thrive: housing, education, job opportunities, etc.
I’m reaching out to you today because we need your help to fight back against our opponents’ lies and instead create the world we know is possible. A world that invests the necessary resources in its communities. A world that embraces the full humanity of people who use drugs. A world in which the regulation of drugs is grounded in health, equity, and human rights.
Please if you can, donate today, spread the truth, and help keep progressive drug policies moving forward.
We all deserve to feel safe, but fearful rhetoric shouted by politicians, media pundits, and special interest groups that prioritize punishment as a response to real public health issues doesn’t bring us to safety. Investing in communities with the supports they need does.
We can only address fears around crime and violence by having conversations rooted in fact, and there is no conclusive evidence showing that drug use causes violence. But there is evidence that the safest places in America invest in communities with jobs, education, housing, and healthcare.
Please, if you can afford it, donate now. Every dollar helps!
Your dedicated support of DPA has helped us put public health and community investment before criminalization—from Measure 110, which made Oregon the first U.S. state to decriminalize drugs and invest in health services, to the opening of the nation’s first Overdose Prevention Centers in New York City (which has reversed nearly 500 overdoses in less than a year).
As fears grow, we are seeing a comeback of excessively harsh, cruel, and ineffective racist law enforcement policies from the 1980s. These policies hurt people and fuel mass incarceration, overdose deaths, and racial injustice.
We must stay laser focused on the world we want to build—a world that invests in its communities and helps people who are struggling with drug use or homelessness rather than demonizing them.
That is why DPA needs your help getting the truth out and fiercely advocating for sensible, proven health-based drug policies that put people first and make communities safer.
Friend, are you with us?
 |
|
Sincerely,
Brian Pacheco
Managing Director, Communications and Marketing |
|
| |
P.S. As a supporter of DPA, you know that drug use is a personal decision and should not be used as an excuse to enact ruthlessly cruel drug policies made to oppress us. We are up against powerful political and media
forces that are casting lies about people who use drugs to push punitive policies. Make your mark today by donating to DPA. Together, we can win.
|
|
