For more than 100 years, U.S. drug policy has punished and criminalized millions of people under the guise of stopping drug use and production.
If this approach actually worked, it would have worked by now. But it is a failure.
Drugs are stronger, cheaper, and more available.
Roughly 80,000 people died from preventable overdoses in 2024. Families were torn apart, children lost parents, parents buried children.
These are real lives that could have been saved with care and compassion—not criminalization, militarization, and fear. And more lives are on the line as the administration continues to attack our communities with harsh drug policies and funding cuts to vital overdose, treatment, and prevention services. It’s up to all of us to fight back, because so much of our shared future is on the line. But I know we have what it takes.
