{news} Press RELEASE War on Drugs is a war on youth, people of color, say Greens

Tue May 15 12:56:26 EDT 2007

Hi Gang,

Please look this over and give me your comments as it
has not been released.

WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders called for
a national discussion on how the US's 'war on
drugs' has turned into a war on young people, the
poor, and African Americans, Latinos, and other
people of color.

"The human and economic devastation caused by the
war on drugs is missing from the range of debate
among both Democratic and Republican presidential
candidates.  Politicians from these parties, when
asked about drug policies, prefer to posture
about law and order and endorse failed measures,"
said _______.

Greens cited a study by the American Civil
Liberties Union ("Cracks in the System: Twenty
Years of Unjust Federal Crack Cocaine Law,"
October 2006,
<http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/drugpolicy/cracksinsystem_20061025.pdf<http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/drugpolicy/cracksinsystem_20061025.pdf>>),
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
<http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20061130-9999-1n30nation.html<http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20061130-9999-1n30nation.html>>
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
last year, according to the Justice
Department.... From 1995 to 2003, inmates in
federal prison for drug offenses have accounted
for 49 percent of total prison population
growth."

In state prisons, 260,000 people were serving
sentences on nonviolent drug charges in 2005, of
whom more than 70% were African American or
Latino
<http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/p05.htm<http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/p05.htm>>. 
The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice
Statistics reports that nearly one in eight drug
prisoners (45,000 Americans) are behind bars for
marijuana-related offenses.

"The war on drugs is an excuse to ignore the US
Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual
punishment, with long prison sentences for minor
and nonviolent offenses," said _______.  "This is
in part a result of pressure on elected officials
from the private prison industry lobby, which
seeks to build new prisons and fill up cells in
order to win government giveaways and increase
corporate profits.  The Green Party calls for a
public debate that challenges the rhetoric of
Democratic and Republican politicians who are
under influence of these companies, and that
recognizes how the war on drugs has only resulted
in more crime and violence."

"We need to stop spending $50 billion a year on
the drug war, and use that money for treatment. 
We need to repeal mandatory sentencing laws,
which override judges' discretion in determining
prison time, and 'three strikes' laws that send
people -- mostly the poor and people of color --
away for life on nonviolent and minor felonies,"
said SAME PERSON.

The Green Party's national platform
<http://www.gp.org/platform/2004<http://www.gp.org/platform/2004>> endorses
decriminalization of victimless crimes, such as
the possession of small amounts of marijuana;
legalization of industrial hemp; an end to the
war on drugs; expanded drug counseling and
treatment; and an end to arrest of 'medical
marijuana' arrests and prosecution.

"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 _______. 
"Addictive use should be treated as a medical and
social 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.  Greens endorse
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 moral judgement, and respect for
basic civil liberties and principles of justice."

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org<http://www.gp.org/>
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
Green Party News Center
http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml<http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml>

Efficacy: Drug Policy Reform Now / Stop the Drug
War http://www.efficacy-online.org/<http://www.efficacy-online.org/>

Common Sense Drug Policy http://www.csdp.org/<http://www.csdp.org/>

Drug War Facts:
Drug Offenders In The Corrections System -
Prisons, Jails and Probation
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prison.htm<http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prisonhtm> 
Race, Prison and the Drug Laws (with information
on the disproportionate incarceration of African
Americans and other people of color)
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/racepris.htm<http://www.drugwarfacts.org/racepris.htm> 
Crime (with information on the correlation
between drug prohibition and violence)
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/crime.htm<http://www.drugwarfacts.org/crime.htm>

~ END ~

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