Washington, DC: Drug prohibition and the rigid enforcement of criminal drug laws are causing “irreparable harm to the African American community and do not advance public safety,” the leaders of several African American professional organizations announced this week at a press conference to mark the launch of the National African American Drug Policy Coalition (NAADCP).
The coalition, which is co-chaired by former Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke and former National Bar Association president Clyde Bailey Sr., announced that it plans to host a series of nationwide seminars “to spark a national dialogue on the need to approach addictions to drugs as a public health problem first, and a criminal problem second.” The coalition also intends to put “a spotlight on drug law enforcement activities that have a disproportionate impact on African Americans, other ethnic minorities, and the poor.”
At the end of the year 2000, 791,600 African American men were behind bars – with drug-related offenses the most common reason for incarceration – compared to 603,032 enrolled in a college or university, Bailey said. By contrast, in 1980, African American men in colleges and universities outnumbered those in prison by a ratio of more than 3 to 1.
“Our purpose, individually and collectively, is to address the urgent need to redefine our nation’s drug policies and laws which have been documented to be a woeful failure nationwide because they have too often over-emphasized criminal sanctions rather than therapeutic sentencing,” Bailey concluded.
Coalition members include the National Bar Association; Howard University School of Law; the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.; the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives; the National Medical Association; the National Association of Black Social Workers; and the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, among others.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500.