NEWSBYETHAN NADELMANN

Ethan Nadelmann is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change

For those of us who fought long and hard to reform the notorious 100-to-one crack / powder cocaine disparity in federal law, the Fair Sentencing Act, signed by President Obama on August 3, is at once a historic victory and a major disappointment. It's both too little, too late and a big step forward.

The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which punished the sale of five grams of crack cocaine the same as 500 grams of powder cocaine, reflected the bipartisan drug war hysteria of the day and was approved with virtually no consideration of scientific evidence or the fiscal and human consequences. The argument for reform has always been twofold: sending someone to federal prison for five years for selling the equivalent of a few sugar packets of cocaine is unreasonably harsh, and it disproportionately affects minorities (almost 80 percent of those sentenced are African-Americans, even though most users and sellers of crack are not black).

The new law increases the amount of crack cocaine that can result in a five-year sentence to twenty-eight grams (i.e., an ounce), thereby reducing the crack/powder ratio to eighteen to one. It also eliminates the five-year mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession (without intent to distribute) of crack cocaine, thereby marking the first time since 1970 that Congress has repealed a mandatory minimum sentence.

Ethan Nadelmann is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change

Governor David Paterson signed legislation last week to limit the NYPD practice of storing personal information on innocent New Yorkers who are stopped-and-frisked but not charged with any crime.

The number of stop-and-frisks by NYPD have exploded over the past decade, increasing from less than 100,000 in 2002 to 581,000 in 2009. The NYPD's own numbers show that 90% of the people stopped are non-white and that 85% of those stopped are not charged with any crime. Despite their innocence, police enter personal information about all of those stopped into their police database system.

Civil liberties groups like the NYCLU and Center for Constitutional Rights have criticized the practice and have called on the NYPD to end this practice.

Governor Paterson should be applauded for signing this important legislation. New Yorkers of all races should be comfortable walking down the streets without being targeted by the police when they have done nothing wrong. It adds insult to injury that innocent New Yorkers, after being unfairly searched, also have their personal information entered into a police database when they have committed no crime.

But there's another destructive consequence of the stop-and-frisk policy that has not received enough attention: it has made New York City the marijuana arrest capital of the world. While the police justify stop-and-frisks as a way to find guns, what is most often found is a small amount of marijuana. Although marijuana was decriminalized in New York State in 1977, Bloomberg's police arrested more than 46,000 people last year on marijuana possession — 10% of all arrests in the city, up from 1% in the mid-1990s.

Ethan Nadelmann is part of Change.org's Changemaker network, a network comprised of leading voices for social change.

I've often felt in years past that our struggle to end the drug war is relentlessly uphill. But that's changing now, sometimes more quickly than even I can believe. The principal reason is us, by which I mean every person who grasps the lunacy of drug policies in this country and throughout much of the world, and who takes some action — no matter how small — to advance a better way.

It's time now for DPA — the Drug Policy Alliance — to launch a new organizational identity that fully expresses each of our roles as agents of change.

This change represents the once-unimaginable progress that you and I have made over the past decade to bring drug policy reform that much closer to the tipping point. Now is the time to make drug policy reform more personal — creating an even greater sense of moral urgency, connecting the dots with more allies, and building on the common interests of everyone who makes up this movement. We can keep chipping away at the drug war but it won't really end until a critical mass of people, communities and elected officials demand a new way of dealing with drugs in our society. That's why we are the Drug Policy Alliance.

I'm often asked, "Who is this growing drug policy reform movement?"

Ethan Nadelmann is part of Change.org's Changemaker network, a network comprised of leading voices for social change.

The struggle to end America's disastrous war on drugs is a struggle for common sense, human rights and of course for racial justice. How could it not be, given the extraordinary and disproportionate extent to which people of color — and especially black people — are arrested, prosecuted and incarcerated for drug offenses?

Almost everyone gets it these days. The U.S. Senate recently voted unanimously to reform the racially discriminatory federal crack/powder mandatory minimum drug laws. Last year, New York finally approved a major reform of the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws that have sent hundreds of thousands of people — overwhelmingly black and Latino — to prison for absurd lengths of time. In Connecticut a few years ago, the state legislature passed — and Republican Governor Rell signed — a bill to reform the state's crack/powder laws. And this year, New Jersey became the first state to reform its popular but notoriously unjust and counterproductive "drug free school zone" law.

I highlight each of these efforts because my colleagues at the Drug Policy Alliance played such a pivotal role, but similar efforts are underway across much of the country. We're increasingly successful in part because of the growing awareness among legislators, community leaders and activists — black, Latino and white — that reforming these laws is a racial justice priority.

Ethan Nadelmann is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Mr Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

The following piece is excerpted from testimony I gave yesterday about the White House's drug war budget and forthcoming 2010 National Drug Control Strategy, during a hearing called by the U.S. House Domestic Policy Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). To read the full text of my testimony, click here.

The predominant role that criminalization plays in dealing with drugs in this country is unsustainable in both fiscal and human terms. Police made 1.7 million drug arrests in 2008 alone, including 750,000 for nothing more than possession of marijuana for personal use. Those arrested were separated from their loved ones, branded criminals, denied jobs, and in many cases prohibited from voting and accessing public assistance for life.

The United States now ranks first in the world in per capita incarceration rates, with less than 5% of the world's population but nearly 25% of the world's prison population. Roughly 500,000 people are behind bars tonight for a drug law violation. That's ten times the total in 1980, and more than all of western Europe (with a much larger population) incarcerates for all offenses. More than half of federal prisoners are there for drug law violations; relatively few are kingpins and virtually none are queenpins.

Ethan Nadelmann is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Mr Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

If you haven't read Sting's passionate article calling for health-based drug policies, I wanted to give you a chance to read it below and to join the Drug Policy Alliance.

I am so grateful that Sting, a great musician and dedicated activist, has decided to lend his powerful voice to our cause during this exciting time. We know it will inspire others to speak out and get involved.

Our movement is gaining momentum faster than I’ve seen in all my years fighting for drug policy reform. The country is more receptive than ever to changing our nation's backwards drug laws. But victory is far from guaranteed, and we need the help and determination of people like you, who recognize the drug war as the utter failure it is. Please help us seize this critical moment by joining us today.

Ethan Nadelmann is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Mr Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

Support for making marijuana legal is increasing more rapidly than ever before. Although I recently wrote that I don't expect bold leadership from President Obama on this issue, there is one small but significant step he can make: respect the rights of states to reform their own marijuana laws.

Lawmakers in California, Washington, New Hampshire, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Vermont have introduced bills to decriminalize or legally regulate marijuana. More than half of Californians say they would vote for a ballot initiative to tax and regulate marijuana - we'll see in November. With recent polls showing about 45 percent of the country in favor of taxing and regulating marijuana - and majority support in several states - we now have an unprecedented opportunity to reform our nation's counterproductive marijuana laws.

Ethan Nadelmann is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Mr Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

Even I can't believe the way that the marijuana issue is opening up right now.

There's been steady progress on medical marijuana -- as evidenced by the Obama administration's new guidelines directing federal drug agents not to arrest legitimate patients and suppliers in medical marijuana states. Then there's the recent victories in Maine, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Washington D.C., -- not to mention the medical marijuana bills making progress in numerous other states around the country. Last month's ABC News/Washington Post poll reported a record 81 percent support for medical marijuana. If ballot initiatives could be held in all 50 states, voters would approve it in all but a small handful.

What's even more remarkable is the recent jump in support for taxing and regulating marijuana. I was pleasantly stunned by the Gallup poll late last year finding that support for making marijuana legal jumped from 36% in 2005 to 44% in 2009. Fifty-four percent of Democrats, 53% of people living in the West, and roughly half of Independents and 18-49 year-olds now support making marijuana legal. In the past year, legislative proposals to tax and regulate marijuana have prompted hearings in California, Washington, and New Hampshire -- and California voters will have their say this November at the ballot box.

What does all this mean?

Ethan Nadelmann is part of Change.org's Changemakers network, comprised of leading voices for social change. Change.org asked Mr Nadelmann to respond to questions to provide context for his work and the causes he supports.

Change.org: What cause or causes would you most like to promote as a Changemaker and why?

Nothing matters to me more than ending the war on drugs and reducing our extraordinary overreliance on the criminal justice system. I want to make marijuana legal, decriminalize all drugs for personal use, and shift our drug policies to a health-based approach.

The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world's population, but almost 25 percent of the world's prisoners, ranking first in the per capita incarceration of our fellow citizens. We have increased the number of people behind bars from roughly 500,000 people in 1980 to 2.3 million today – and altogether we now have over 7 million people under criminal justice supervision.

The drug war – the dominant role of the criminal justice system in dealing with certain drugs and the people who buy, sell, make, and use them – is driving this explosive increase in incarceration more than anything else. The U.S. arrests almost a million people for marijuana each year and over a half million people are behind bars tonight for a drug law violation.

The movement for drug policy reform stands in the footsteps of other movements for individual freedom and social justice – it currently stands where the gay rights movement stood in the 1970s, or where the civil rights movement stood in the 1950s, or where the women's rights movement stood in the early part of the 20th century.