Moms united to end the war on drugs

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Moms united to end the war on drugs

12 May 2015

Mothers, family members, healthcare professionals and individuals in recovery are joining together to bring focus to our country's failed drug policies and the havoc they have wreaked on our families.

Moms United to End the War on Drugs is a growing movement to stop the violence, mass incarceration and overdose deaths that are the result of current punitive and discriminatory drug policies. We are advocating for therapeutic drug policies that reduce the harms of drugs and current drug laws. The figures are staggering:

Overdose: In the US, men aged 35-54 are more likely to die of a drug overdose than a car accident. In 2006, the latest figures published by the Centers on Disease Control, 26,400 people died of an unintentional drug overdose in the US. And, yet, because of punitive drug laws, people who witness an overdose are often too afraid to call for help.

Arrests: Over 1.8 million people in the US were arrested for a drug offense in 2008, 1.4 million of them for drug possession – not sales or trafficking. A disproportionate number of these arrests are of
people of color, particularly young African-American men, even though drug use and sales rates are comparable across racial and ethnic lines.

We encourage you to join Moms United to End the War on Drugs, a campaign of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing) in partnership with a growing number of organizations and individuals in a massive collaborative effort to change our current punitive policies of arrest and imprisonment to health-oriented and therapeutic strategies.

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