This report finds that enforcement of drug possession laws causes extensive and unjustifiable harm to individuals and communities across the country. The long-term consequences can separate families; exclude people from job opportunities, welfare assistance, public housing, and voting; and expose them to discrimination and stigma for a lifetime. While more people are arrested for simple drug possession in the US than for any other crime, mainstream discussions of criminal justice reform rare...| Human Rights Watch
This ACLU research report, A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform, details marijuana arrests from 2010 to 2018 and examines racial disparities at the national, state, and county levels. Updating our previous report, The War on Marijuana in Black and White, that examined arrests from 2000 to 2010, this report reveals that the racist war on marijuana is far from over. More than six million arrests occurred between 2010 and 2018, and Black people are st...| American Civil Liberties Union
The authors review the historical use of medicinal cannabis and discuss the agent’s pharmacology and pharmacokinetics, select evidence on medicinal uses, and the implications of evolving regulations on the acute care hospital setting.| pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Report from a University of Pennsylvania seminar looking at the contrast between the “War on Drugs,” which devastated Black and Latino communities through mass incarceration, and today’s public health…| Penn LDI
Background People who inject drugs (PWID) are a medically and socially vulnerable population with a high incidence of overdose, mental illness, and infections like HIV and hepatitis C. Existing literature describes social and economic correlations to increased health risk, including stigma. Injection drug use stigma has been identified as a major contributor to healthcare disparities for PWID. However, data on this topic, particularly in terms of the interface between enacted, anticipated, an...| BioMed Central
Washington, D.C. – Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl (HALT) Act (H.R. 467) in a 289-133 vote. This legislation would ramp up mandatory minimum sentencing for fentanyl analogues. It would also permanently schedule all fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I without first testing them for benefits or harm. | Drug Policy Alliance
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is attempting to push Maryland’s Department of Health to restrict the distribution of two veterinary tranquilizers that play a growing role in the state’s overdose crisis.| CNS Maryland
