Endorsement Harris – Part 1 of 2: Human Rights, Social Cohesion and Rule of Law

Endorsement Harris – Part 1 of 2:
Human Rights, Social Cohesion and Rule of Law

Trump's lawlessness, encouragements to violence, and tactical exploitation of social divisions including racism, are bad for drug policy.

The Biden-Harris administration embraced harm reduction to a degree that is unprecedented in US policy, both domestically and internationally.

This statement is published by Drug Reform Coordination Network, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that maintains the StoptheDrugWar.org web site and associated publications.

Part two of our endorsement will focus on cannabis (marijuana) policy.

Drug policy reform is an issue with support across a range of the political spectrum. Since our organization's founding we've sought common cause, cultivated much-valued friendships, and forged alliances with good people of all kinds. These alliances remain important to us, and those friendships remain precious.

Our issue, however, as well as our organization, do not exist in a vacuum. As our mission statement expresses, while working for health and justice by seeking to end prohibition and its excesses, we also strive to positively impact related issues. As our statement of political approach notes, societies evolve, and this is a time of special challenges.

After Donald Trump's 2016 election, we decided we would observe the incoming president's job performance with an open mind, be prepared to give credit if he did anything good, but also speak plainly about how we view his presidency and the state of affairs in our country.

That led our organization in 2017 to declare our opposition to the now former president. In October 2020, the nonprofit Drug Reform Coordination Network, our 501(c)(4) organization, carried out some election-season activities which highlighted the former president's similarities and attraction to rights-abusing foreign dictators, principally in the context of our efforts to stop extrajudicial killings in the Philippine drug war. Through the Stand with Human Rights and Democracy campaign, we published a video, "Trump and Duterte – Allies in Violence." We also held a street demonstration called "Autocrat Fair," outside DC's Old Post Office building, which then housed the Trump International Hotel.

Our opposition to Trump stems in part from broad concerns that have been expressed by many. But it's also motivated by issues in drug policy, or which relate closely to drug policy.

The first of those is praise Trump offered in December 2016 and May 2017 to the Philippines' former president, Rodrigo Duterte, specifically for his murderous anti-drug program. Along with undermining efforts by the US State Department to address the Duterte killings, they greenlighted a smaller but significant wave of similar killings in Indonesia that President Joko Widodo ordered the following July.

Trump's response to the fentanyl crisis, during office and continuing to recently, has included calls to carry out death penalty executions for some drug offenses; and to fight drug cartels by invading, sending "kill squads," firing missiles into or dropping bombs on Mexico. The Trump administration's opioid task force, which was headed by Kellyanne Conway, took a political approach that rendered it not very consequential.

By contrast, the Biden-Harris administration's approach to opioids, while far from perfect, has embraced harm reduction to a degree that is unprecedented in US policy, both domestically and internationally.

As drug policy reformers, we also advocate criminal justice and policing reform. While we did not embrace every slogan fielded by organizations from the Black Lives Matter movement or its closest allies, we view the mass protests that erupted following the murder by a police officer of George Floyd, as an important historical moment that expanded the possibilities for positive change. Even if we didn't hold that view, though, we would still be troubled by the demonization of protesters, and the conflation of protests to riots or other crime, that were orchestrated by figures on the right.

We find the reports of what President Trump wanted the military to do against protesters to be particularly horrifying. General Mark Milley, who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, and Trump Defense Secretary Mark Esper, said that Trump, screaming, urged them to "just shoot" protesters or to "crack their skulls." Our video mentioned above that compares Trump and Duterte, compiles footage of repeated occasions on which Trump encouraged police and others to engage in violence directed against suspects, protesters and media.

As an organization working for rule of law adherence in drug policy internationally, we view drugs as an issue that can rapidly punch through legal and social norms – similarly to, if figuring less frequently than, issues like immigration, liberalizing social changes or economic dissatisfactions. Trump's inflammatory rhetoric about immigrants, his circulation of anti-semitic imagery, and his gross oversimplification of economics, all bode ill for what a second Trump term would mean.

We believe that Trump's lawlessness, encouragements to violence, and tactical exploitation of social divisions including racism, are bad for drug policy; and we endorse Kamala Harris and Tim Walz for President and Vice President of the United States.

There's still time to volunteer for the Harris campaign! Visit https://go.kamalaharris.com for a list of events at or within travel distance of your location, or for ways to help over the phone. Also, if you're not sure where to go vote yourself, whether you're eligible and registered to vote, or whether you still have time to register in your state, two sites where you can look up information are https://canIvote.org and https://www.rockthevote.org.

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