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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 11, 2009 CONTACT: Jennifer Carnig at 212.607.3363 or [email protected] NYCLU Announces Findings about Statewide Impact of Rockefeller Drug Laws March 11, 2009 – The New York Civil Liberties today released a detailed report illustrating the disastrous effects the Rockefeller Drug Laws have inflicted on New York State. The report analyzes the drug laws’ economic and social impact on the entire state, and its largest cities: Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Rochester and Syracuse. The report – The Rockefeller Drug Laws: Unjust, Irrational, Ineffective – presents overwhelming evidence that New York’s mandatory minimum drug-sentencing scheme has failed to improve public safety or deter drug use. It documents the grave harm the drug laws cause to low-income communities of color, and it calls on lawmakers to adopt a public health approach to addressing substance abuse. “The Rockefeller Drug Laws have failed by every measure. They tear apart families, waste tax dollars and create shocking racial disparities,” said Donna Lieberman, NYCLU executive director. “Yet, after 36 years of failure, our state continues locking up the wrong people for the wrong reasons. Justice and common sense require comprehensive reform.” Enacted in 1973, the Rockefeller Drug Laws mandate extremely harsh prison terms for the possession or sale of relatively small amounts of drugs. Though intended to target drug kingpins, most of the people incarcerated are convicted of low-level, nonviolent offenses. Many of the thousands of New Yorkers in prison under these laws suffer from substance abuse problems; many others struggle with issues related to homelessness, mental illness or unemployment. The mass incarceration of drug offenders rips parents away from children. As of 2002, an estimated 11,000 people incarcerated for drug offenses, including 1,000 women, were parents of young children. Close to 25,000 children in New York State had parents in prison convicted of nonviolent drug charges. Some 50 percent of mothers and fathers in prison for drug convictions did not receive visits from their children. Despite modest reforms in 2004 and 2005, the state’s drug sentencing scheme remains intact. These laws deny judges the authority to place people suffering from addiction, mental health issues and homelessness into treatment programs. For decades, the NYCLU, criminal justice advocates and medical experts have fought to untie the hands of judges and allow addiction to be treated as a public health matter. As noted in the New York State Sentencing Commission’s recent report, sentencing non-violent drug offenders to prison is ineffective and counterproductive, and has resulted in unconscionable racial disparities: Blacks and Latinos comprise more than 90 percent of those currently incarcerated for drug felonies, though government research shows that most people using illegal drugs are white. “New York’s drug sentencing laws are the Jim Crow laws of the 21st Century,” said Robert Perry, NYCLU legislative director and the report’s lead author. “Prosecution of drug offenses has sent hundreds of thousands to prison, most of whom were charged with low-level, non-violent offenses. The Rockefeller Drug Laws have been a driving force in incarcerating a prison population that is almost exclusively black and brown.” The report features demographic maps created by the Justice Mapping Center that analyze who is sent to prison for drug offenses from the state’s five largest cities: Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Rochester and Syracuse. The maps depict the racial and ethnic bias inherent in the state’s drug policy and illustrate the exorbitant cost of locking up drug offenders. For example, 25 percent of adults in New York City sent to prison in 2006 came from neighborhoods with just 4 percent of the city’s adult population. More than half were admitted for drug offenses, and 97 percent were black or Latino. In Buffalo, 25 percent of adults sent to prison come from areas with just 6 percent of the city’s adult population. One in four is admitted for drug offenses and 91 percent are black or Latino. The maps also show the enormous cost of combating drug-related crime through massive incarceration. For example, taxpayers spent more than $27.5 million to imprison Rochester residents convicted of drug offenses in 2006, and another $21 million to imprison Albany residents convicted of drug offenses that year. More than $440 million was spent to incarcerate New York City residents sent to prison in 2006 for drug offenses. Based on estimates calculated by the state Commission on Sentencing Reform, taxpayers will pay about $600 million to incarcerate drug offenders in 2009 alone. “Faced with a major recession and a multi-billion dollar budget deficit, New York cannot afford to waste hundreds of millions of dollars locking up nonviolent drug offenders,” Lieberman said. “Money saved through reforming the drug-sentencing laws could be spent helping struggling New Yorkers get back on their feet.” The report makes several recommendations for reform, including: • Reduce sentences for those convicted of drug-related crimes. • Restore judicial discretion and end mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses. • Develop and invest in a statewide alternative to incarceration model to provide supervised treatment, education and employment training for those who would be better served by diversion than by prison. • Provide retroactive sentencing relief for those already incarcerated under the Rockefeller Drug Laws. “Imprisonment for drug-related crimes should be the last resort, reserved for truly violent offenders,” Perry said. “Adopting a public health model to address the problems related to substance abuse will not only save taxpayers money, it will move the state toward a more fair and effective strategies for promoting justice and public safety.” To read or download a copy of the report – including the maps – visit www.nyclu.org/rockefeller-report. -xxx-

For Immediate Release: March 11, 2009 Contact: Tony Newman at (646) 335-5384 or Ethan Nadelmann at (646) 335-2240 Obama to Nominate Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as Drug Czar Today Statement from Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance President Obama is set to nominate Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) today, according to the Washington Post. The director of ONDCP is more commonly referred to as Drug Czar. The Post is also reporting that the Obama administration will remove the position’s Cabinet-level status – overturning an elevation of the office under President George W. Bush. The Seattle Times, ABC News and other sources reported a month ago that President Obama was considering Kerlikowske for the post. The Washington Post reports that appointing him was delayed as information of drug arrests involving his stepson emerged. Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a leading advocate of alternatives to the war on drugs, said: “While we’re disappointed that President Obama has nominated a police chief instead of a major public health advocate as drug czar, we’re cautiously optimistic that Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske will support Obama’s drug policy reform agenda. What gives us hope is the fact that Seattle has been at the cutting edge of harm reduction and other drug policy reform developments in the United States over the last decade. The city’s needle exchange programs are well established and harm reduction is well integrated in Seattle’s approach to local drug problems. Marijuana has been legal for medical purposes for a decade. In 2003, Seattle voters passed a ballot initiative making marijuana arrests the lowest law enforcement priority. And the King County Bar Association has demonstrated national leadership in exploring alternatives to current prohibitionist policies. While Gil Kerlikowske has not spoken out in favor of any of these reforms, he is clearly familiar with them and has not been a forceful opponent. Given the high regard in which he is held by other police chiefs around the country, Mr. Kerlikowske has the potential to provide much needed national leadership in implementing the commitments that Barack Obama made during the campaign. He also surely recognizes that substance abuse or run-ins with the law can touch anyone, including his own family. He will hopefully advocate for treatment instead of incarceration for nonviolent drug law offenders. Incarcerating someone because they have a drug problem is cruel and counterproductive, whether that person is a member of your own family or someone else. As a presidential candidate, Senator Obama said the ‘war on drugs is an utter failure’ and that he believes in ‘shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more on a public health approach.’ He also called for eliminating the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity, repealing the ban on federal funding for syringe exchange programs to reduce HIV/AIDS, and stopping the U.S. Justice Department from undermining state medical marijuana laws. Within 24 hours of taking office, President Obama had the White House webpage changed to reflect his support for eliminating the crack/powder disparity and repealing the syringe ban. Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference on February 25th that Obama’s position on ending medical raids is “now American policy.” The Drug Policy Alliance will do everything in its power to ensure that the nominee for drug czar is thoroughly vetted at the confirmation hearings, and held accountable to the commitments and standards that President Obama has declared.”

Dear Friends, On http://www.encod.org/info/APPEAL-FOR-A-DRUG-POLICY.html or hereunder you can read the appeal for a moratorium on drug policy that the Encod delegation will present to the CND in Vienna the coming days. On Thursday 12 march we will organbise a FREEDOM TO FARM - Peace on Plants Picknick, open for all artists, performers, people and plants, in front of the UN Building in Vienna (see http://www.encod.org/info/ENCOD-DELEGATION-TO-UN-SUMMIT-IN.html). On Friday 13 March, we will host a press conference in cafe Landtmann in Vienna (see http://www.encod.org/info/CITIZENS-AFFECTED-BY-WORLD-DRUG.html). Best wishes, Joep ------------------------------- A Drug Policy Moratorium is needed, and a true Year of Reflection. Our call for a moratorium in UN drug policy is based on the following three reasons. 1. The Year of Reflection has not been used properly, and cannot be concluded in March 09. There has been no evaluation, nor reflection worthy of that name, at least not within UNODC, INCB, nor CND. As usual, CND only evaluates itself. And let us not forget that the Mexico’s call for an evaluation, shortly before UNGASS 1998, was refused by CND. In the past year, there has been no discussion on any independent evaluation within CND. The input from the global NGO-assembly “Beyond 2008” was all but ignored. The preparations for CND ‘09 concentrated on the Political Declaration that had to be produced in consensus for the “High Level segment” of CND, and are in an ideological stalemate on the subject of Harm Reduction. 2. The only independent evaluation that should have reached CND-members before and during their deliberations starting next week, was the one commissioned by the European Commission. This evaluation, by a commission chaired by Prof. Peter Reuter was ready in draft in December, but was held up for unclear reasons and will not be made public before the beginning of the CND. This means that there is no more chance of this evaluation to have any influence on the outcome of CND ‘09. However, on 4 March at a meeting in Brussels of the Civil Society Forum on drug policy of the European Union, a week before the start of CND, the core conclusion of the Reuter evaluation was disclosed: international drug policy has done more harm than good. 3. During the last weeks, it has become clear that the USA is on the verge of significant changes of position on drug policy. After the election of President Obama the American delegation continued for as long as possible to resist the acceptance of Harm Reduction and Human Rights principles, which are widely accepted throughout the United Nations. Only a few days ago the US representative at the CND announced a minor, but important shift in stance on Harm Reduction. It is clear that the Obama administration needs more time to devise its new policy. Of course, the UN cannot let its policies be determined by one country. On the other hand, the USA is the dominant global power, possibly even more in drug policy than in other areas. It makes little sense to adopt a global policy for a long period, knowing that the USA is in the process of changing its positions, which will probably influence a lot of other member states. Conclusion The need for a period of true reflection is greater than ever. Deciding on drug policy now, which means determining policy for many years, possibly again the next ten years, would be highly irresponsible. This year’s CND cannot be accepted to be the final chord of the “Year of Reflection”. The publication of the independent evaluation by the Reuter Commission can and should be the beginning of serious discussion and reflection. A Drug Policy Moratorium is needed, and a true Year of Reflection.

Today Marks 36,546 Days of DRUG WAR! 4:20 Drug War NEWS from 90.1 FM in Houston 60+ radio affiliates in the US, Canada and Australia & at www.kpft.org. 4:20 Drug War NEWS 03/09/09 to 03/15/09 now online (3:00 ea:) Select online at www.drugtruth.net Sun - Russell Jones of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition 2/2 Sat - Judge Michael McSpadden 3/3 Fri - Russell Jones of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Thu - Judge Michael McSpadden 2/3 Wed - Judge Michael McSpadden, one of 16 Houston area judges calling for a new direction in the drug war 1/3 Tue - Terry Nelson headed to Vienna to speak to UN for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Mon - Doug McVay with Drug War Facts + Abolitionist Moment Next - Century of Lies on Tues, Cutural Baggage on Wed: - Cultural Baggage 12:30 PM ET, 11:30 AM CT, 10:30 AM MT & 9:30 AM PT: Charles Lynch, facing Federal prison for MMJ - Century of Lies 12:30 PM ET, 11:30 AM CT, 10:30 AM MT, 9:30 AM PT: Bruce Mirken of Marijuana Policy Project NOTE: Starting March 15, Century of Lies will move to Sundays at 7 PM Hundreds of our programs are available online at www.drugtruth.net, and www.audioport.org Check out our latest videos via www.youtube.com/fdbecker Please become part of the solution, visit our website: www.endprohibition.org for links to the best of reform. "Prohibition is evil." - Reverend Dean Becker, Drug Truth Network Producer Dean Becker 713-849-6869 www.drugtruth.net