Posts Tagged ‘Citizens United for Responsible Budget’
‘War On Drugs Bill Of Rights’ To Be Introduced By Concerned Families, Law Enforcement, Students
It’s no secret, it’s just never truly publicized. Victims of the ‘drug war’ have families, wives, children, mothers too. And perhaps no one falls more victim to the senseless attacks on nonviolent offenders as well as legal medical marijuana industry professionals than these innocent citizens and civilians.
Tomorrow, they plan to make their voices heard.
To kick of a national week of action to “stop the violence, mass incarceration and overdose deaths resulting from our current punitive and discriminatory drug policies,” A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing) is partnering with organizations including Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), NORML Women’s Alliance, Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes, and Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and will holding a joint press conference with Moms United to End the War on Drugs on the steps of San Diego Hall of Justice tomorrow, May 10, at 10:00am (PST) to announce the “Moms United to End the War on Drugs Bill of Rights” to the public.
Along with Gretchen Burns Bergman and Caroline Ridout Stewart from A New PATH, Margaret Dooley-Sammuli fromAmericans for Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Lizzy Stewart from Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes, and Tiffany Smith-Nguyen from Students for Sensible Drug Policy, speakers include Kush Magazine columnists Leo Laurence from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), and Jessica McElfresh, Esq. from NORML Women’s Alliance and Counsel to the Patient Care Association of California (PCACA), will be speaking at the event as well.
For more information, visit ANewPathSite.org and MomsUnited.net.
The full text of the Moms United to End the War on Drugs Bill of Rights is as follows:
Moms United to End the War on Drugs Bill of Rights
Mothers, parents and families are leading the charge to end the violence, mass incarceration and overdose deaths that are a result of current punitive and discriminatory drug policies. We are building a movement to stop the stigmatization and criminalization of people who use drugs or who are addicted to drugs. We urgently call for health-oriented strategies and widespread drug policy reform in order to stop the irresponsible waste of dollars and resources, and the devastating loss of lives and liberty.
We declare and assert these basic rights for all mothers:
1. We have the right to nurture our offspring, and to advocate for their care and safety.
2. We have the right to be free from the shame and stigma caused by negative labels encumbering our children who suffer from addictive disorders and the parents who raise them.
3. We have the parental right to policies and practices that recognize addiction as a disease in need of treatment, rather than a willful behavior to be criminalized.
4. We have the right to be represented by informed policymakers who work to reduce the barriers to education, housing and employment opportunities that our sons and daughters encounter after they have been arrested for drug possession.
5. We have the right to honest, accurate, safety-first drug education in our schools, rather than scare tactics.
6. We have the right to respectful, nondiscriminatory harm reduction strategies that honestly address and treat the chronic relapsing disease of addiction, and to policies that are informed by and consistent with scientific research, compassion and reason.
7. We have the right to life-saving overdose prevention and intervention strategies, which should not be impeded or pre-empted by criminal justice policies of arrest and incarceration.
8. We have the constitutional right to protect our homes and families from the unreasonable search and seizure tactics of drug “warriors”.
9. We have the right to communities where our children can live, learn and play without fear of drug war violence.
10. We have the right to have our roles as parents protected and supported, rather than disregarded and terminated by incarceration for nonviolent drug offenses.
11. We have the right to protect the future of all our children from a drug war which is waged predominantly against families, as well as communities of color and poverty.
12. We have the right to speak out publicly to end the war on drugs, because of the damage it has done to our communities, for the sake of our children and future generations.
Endorsed by:
A New PATH, Mothers Against Teen Violence, Broken No More, GRASP, A New Way of Life, St. Ann’s Corner of Harm Reduction, Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy Roosevelt University, Drug Policy Alliance, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Citizens United for Responsible Budget, Families for Justice as Healing, NORML Women’s Alliance, Christians Against Prohibition, ACLU of California.