Issue Position: Drug Policy Reform

Issue Position

America has 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prisoners.

Drug prohibition has created illicit markets, empowered gangs, terrorists and drug cartels, resulted in widespread violations of our rights against search and seizure, resulted in massive corruption, overburdened our criminal justice system and contributed to the highest incarceration rate on earth.

Our drug war has cost an estimated $1 trillion dollars in the 40 years since it was declared in 1971.

There is no policy in the United States that is more discriminatory against minorities or the less affluent. Our policy is the cause of widespread violence and death in Mexico and many other countries. Meanwhile, drug use has flourished. Law enforcement is faced with the impossible task of fighting against the law of supply and demand. They might as well be trying to defy the law of gravity.

I support the position of the Global Commission on Drug Policy that we need to end the criminalization of drugs and focus on harm reduction.

Source