Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 18:33:07 -0500 (EST)
From: David Borden <[b--rd--n] at [intr.net]>
To: [j--r--y] at [pwa.acusd.edu]
Subject: NEWS RELEASE: NYCLA Releases Major Study on Drug Policy
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Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
Rapid Response Team
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Please copy and distribute.
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New York County Lawyers' Association
14 Vesey Street, New York, NY 10007
Contact: Brook S. Mason, (212) 267-6646, ext. 225
NYCLA Releases Major Study on Drug Policy
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New York, NY, November 12, 1996....The New York County
Lawyers' Association released a major study on an issue of
national importance -- the Report and Recommendations of the
Drug Policy Task Force -- and declared the nation's present
drug policy a disaster.
The Drug Policy Task Force, a 42 member blue-ribbon panel of
prominent federal and state judges, legislators, attorneys,
medical practitioners, educators and policy analysts, was
convened by NYCLA in the fall of 1993. Its 50-page report
issued this month emphasizes that, despite the vast public
resources expended on the enforcement of drug law statutes,
contemporary drug policy "has failed, even on its own terms"
to meet its objectives, and called for "a dramatic shift in
thinking and approach in development and implementation of
future drug control efforts."
"We strongly believe that only by treating drug abuse as a
public health issue will the nation curb the escalation of
drug abuse and drug-related violence," said John J. Kenney,
NYCLA president.
The NYCLA Task Force found that the current "penal" model of
drug policy with its emphasis on arrest, prosecution and
incarceration of offenders has managed neither to curb
substance abuse nor to reduce violence associated with the
illicit drug trade.
In recommending replacement of the current penal model with
its criminalization of substance abusers by a public health
model emphasizing education, vocational assistance and
access to medical treatment, the Task Force stopped short of
recommending legalization of most controlled substances.
However, the NYCLA Drug Policy Task Force recommended the
decriminalization of marijuana. For future drug policy, it
advised "further study and serious consideration of other
alternative, non-criminal, regulatory drug control
measures."
Included in its Recommendations, consisting of a 10-point
plan for broad policy reforms, are the following:
* Elimination of statutory mandatory minimum sentencing
provisions and restoration of judicial discretion in the
sentencing of drug offenders.
* Development and monitoring of pilot programs designed as
alternative approaches to dealing with problems of
substance abuse.
* Expansion of drug treatment, education and vocational
support programs.
* Increasing emphasis on "alternative-to-incarceration"
programs.
* Sentencing relief for non-violent drug offenders.
* Development of alternative social and economic
opportunities for inner city youth.
* Creation of state and federal bipartisan
interdisciplinary commissions to make proposals for drug
law reform.
Further advocating rejection of what it characterized as the
government's "zero tolerance" approach to drug policy, the
NYCLA Drug Policy Task Force has included many suggestions
compatible with "harm reduction" theory, a significant drug
strategy which seeks to identify and reduce harms associated
with drug use, the illicit drug trade and drug control
measures themselves. Such proposals include: expansion of
needle exchange programs as well as methadone clinics;
dissemination of accurate information about drug use;
attempts to separate hard drug markets, i. e. cocaine and
heroin, from markets for soft drugs like marijuana;
improving access to medical care for substance abusers; and
redirecting law enforcement, court and correctional
resources to focus more efforts on perpetrators of violent
crime.
In arriving at such recommendations, the NYCLA Task Force
specifically noted the enormous economic and social costs of
present drug policies, widespread negative effects on public
health occasioned by such policies, the widely disparate
impact of current laws and enforcement policies on
impoverished and minority communities and upon women, as
well as the apparent role of three decades of contemporary
drug policy in exacerbating rather than alleviating violence
in communities across the country.
Attached is a copy of the NYCLA Drug Policy Task Force
Report and Recommendations. The list of participants of the
NYCLA Drug Policy Task Force is contained in the report. The
printing and distribution of this report is supported by a
grant from the Washington, DC-based Drug Policy Foundation.
The Report is also available on the World Wide Web at:
http://www.drcnet.org/nycla.html and
http:/www.lindesmith.org/nycla.html.
###
NYCLA is one of the largest local bar associations in the
nation. Since its founding in 1908, NYCLA has dedicated
itself to the New York community as well as the legal
profession by offering a wide variety of public services and
educational programs.
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END THE DRUG WAR
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