Earp, Brian D and Lewis, Jonathan and Hart, Carl L (2021) Racial justice requires ending the War on Drugs. The American Journal of Bioethics, pp. 1-29. doi: 10.1080/15265161.2020.1861364.
External website: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15265...
Historically, laws and policies to criminalize drug use or possession were rooted in explicit racism, and they continue to wreak havoc on certain racialized communities. We are a group of bioethicists, drug experts, legal scholars, criminal justice researchers, sociologists, psychologists, and other allied professionals who have come together in support of a policy proposal that is evidence-based and ethically recommended. We call for the immediate decriminalization of all so-called recreational drugs and, ultimately, for their timely and appropriate legal regulation. We also call for criminal convictions for nonviolent offenses pertaining to the use or possession of small quantities of such drugs to be expunged, and for those currently serving time for these offenses to be released. In effect, we call for an end to the "war on drugs."
MA-ML Social science, culture and community > Sociocultural discrimination > Minority group (racial group, immigrant, Traveller)
MM-MO Crime and law > Substance use laws > Drug laws
MM-MO Crime and law > Justice and enforcement system
MP-MR Policy, planning, economics, work and social services > Policy > Policy on substance use
MP-MR Policy, planning, economics, work and social services > Policy > Policy on substance use > Drug decriminalisation or legalisation policy
VA Geographic area > United States
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