Today marks the official beginning of the general election season. Let’s make sure the war on drugs is an issue this election cycle. With party conventions beginning this week, we need your help.
Support for ending the war on drugs crosses all party lines. An overwhelming majority of the public knows the war on drugs has been a complete and utter failure, yet most politicians ignore the movement to reform our country’s disastrous drug policies.
Politicians are supposed to represent you, the voter. The major party platforms are supposed to represent the position of the party’s members. So now is the time to tell the major parties to listen to public consensus and show leadership by taking on the drug war.
Momentum for ending marijuana prohibition and reducing the number of people incarcerated for nonviolent drug offenses is rapidly advancing at the state level. And a number of state Democratic parties recently endorsed marijuana reform at their local conventions.
But even as reform becomes more and more mainstream, our progress is being threatened by the dramatic escalation of the federal assault on medical marijuana and by politicians who will do anything they can to suppress our movement.
The United States has less than five percent of the world’s population but incarcerates almost twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners — and criminalizing people who use drugs causes many of these needless arrests and convictions. There is something fundamentally wrong with this equation, and neither of the presidential candidates is talking about it. But the upcoming conventions give us an opportunity to shine a light on this appalling reality and force a conversation on the failure of the drug war.
Our drug policies will only change with growing pressure from voters like you. Let’s seize this opportunity. Urge the parties to stop ignoring voters by ending America’s longest war — the indefensible war on drugs.
Action Alert From The Drug Policy Alliance
