Hawkins Calls for End of the War on Drugs
Howie Hawkins for Congress
25th District, New York
www.howiehawkins.org
Media Release
For Immediate Release: Tuesday, October 28, 2008
For More Information: Howie Hawkins, 315-425-1019, hhawkins@igc.org
Howie Hawkins, the Green Populist candidate for Congress in the 25th District, called today for Congress to end the war on drugs by focusing on drug treatment on demand rather than criminalization of drug use.
"The 'war on drugs' has turned into a war on young people, the poor, and African Americans, Latinos, and other people of color. It has filled our prisons to overflowing. Over 7 million people are in prison, on probation, or on parole. We imprison more people and at a higher rate than any country in the world, more than the most repressive dictatorships anywhere. My opponents in the Democratic and Republican parties ignore the human and economic devastation caused by the war on drugs. Instead, the two major parties posture about law and order and endorse failed measures, waste tax dollars, ruin lives, and, indeed, increase violence in our neighborhoods by their war on drugs policies. We need to stop wasting $50 billion a year on the drug war," said Hawkins.
Hawkins said that the war on drugs has been used to support a growing prison-industrial complex in America, now by far the largest system of incarceration in the world. State Republicans have consistently pushed for more prisons in upstate New York as economic development. Democratic Governors, notably Mario Cuomo and David Paterson, have been willing to go along, trading new prisons for other budget concessions from State Senate Republicans.
A study by the American Civil Liberties Union ("Cracks in the System: Twenty Years of Unjust Federal Crack Cocaine Law," October 2006), found that 37% of people arrested, 59% of people convicted, and 74% of those sent to prison are African American, even though only 15% of drug users are African American.The Associated Press has reported that "a record 7 million people -- or one in every 32 American adults -- were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of 2006, according to the Justice Department. More than 2 million are in prison. From 1995 to 2003, inmates in federal prison for drug offenses have accounted for 49 percent of total prison population growth."
"This mass incarceration has imposed an enormous burden on US taxpayers. The federal government faces multi-trillion dollar budget deficits and leaders of both ruling parties in Washington call for reductions in social services, education, and environmental protection. but they have voted to increase the federal war on drugs budget by 4.7% this fiscal year to $12.5 billion dollars," Hawkins said
Thousands of New Yorkers annually are arrested for small amounts of marijuana possession, even though the possession of two ounces of marijuana was decriminalized in New York more than three decades ago following the arrests of students in the Syracuse area. The rate of incarceration for marijuana offenses in New York for blacks is nearly 4 times that of whites. In some communities like Syracuse, the rate is nearly ten times that of whites.
"Law enforcement should focus efforts on organized crime, including the laundering of drug money at banks, rather than on street-level drug trade, in which kids who get arrested -- or killed -- are quickly replaced," said Hawkins. "Addictive use should be treated as a medical and public health problem. Locking up addicts in stressed prison environments, with minimal effort to address the addiction itself, and then freeing them to go back into the same circumstances that led to their abuse of drugs has only aggravated the problem of addiction. We need rational solutions to the problems of drug abuse that are based on science and health, compassion for addicts and their families, reduction of harm rather than puritanical judgment, and respect for basic civil liberties and principles of justice."
Hawkins has been a long time advocate of repealing New York’s notorious Rockefeller Drug Laws, something he championed along with Al "Grandpa" Lewis on the 1998 Green Party statewide candidates slate, leading to the Drop the Rock movement. The Correctional Association and other advocates point out that 80 percent of the drug offenders incarcerated under the Rockefeller Drug laws are non-violent offenders and 90 percent are African American and Latino. Reform supporters estimate that more than $200 million could be saved in New York through changes in those draconian laws.
Hawkins noted that the national platforms of the Democratic and Republican parties offer no reforms that even begin a retreat from the costly $50 billion dollar a year war on drugs. The Green Party platform, by contrast, advocates several measures to reduce mass incarceration, violence, and ruined lives created by war on drugs policies, including:
Legalization of Cannabis/Hemp. It should to be legalized, regulated, controlled, and taxed like tobacco and alcohol. Until this happens, Greens advocate that medical marijuana be made a prescription drug that doctors may prescribe to their patients.
Drug counseling and treatment on demand for all who want it.
Undermine the international drug trade by cracking down on the illicit money laundering by banks that the drug cartels depend upon and by reducing domestic demand for drugs through treatment and education. The US should end foreign and military policies that finance and arm drug warlords and their militias in third world countries like Colombia, Mexico, and Afghanistan. These military alliances are counterproductive, alienating the people in these countries because the drug cartels often kill uncooperative farmers and political and labor activists.
Expand innovative sentencing and punishment options, including community service for first-time offenders and "Drug Court" diversion programs.
Support alternative sentencing for non-violent crimes (i.e. community service) and guaranteed education within prison.
Hawkins also said the US should consider harm reduction programs modeled after those in such European countries as The Netherlands, Switzerland, and Portugal that have legalized or decriminalized hard drugs and put resources into maintenance doses for addicts and addiction treatment programs on demand.
"Legalization or decriminalization of drugs would put organized crime in drugs out of business, end drug-related violence in our streets, reduce the caseloads of our overburdened courts, reduce prison overcrowding, free up police to focus on crimes against people and property, end drug-related police and judiciary corruption, and reduce harm to addicts and their families and their neighborhoods rather than make life worse for them," Hawkins said.
"This country has had almost a century of drug prohibition, and four decades of the war on drugs, yet there are more drugs at cheaper prices on our streets than ever before and we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on interdiction alone. Those who insist on a continuation of 21st century Prohibition are ensuring that the production and distribution of drugs is left in the control of organized crime cartels criminals and terrorist networks. Drug use should be handled as a public health issue, not a criminal justice issue," concluded Hawkins.
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