Criminal Justice Reform
Criminal Justice Reform
Since the early 20th century, the United States has pursued an aggressive prohibitionist approach to the regulation of psychoactive drugs. In the early 1960s Richard Nixon implemented the War on Drugs, which allocated funding to accelerate the incarceration of people who use drugs. The War on Drugs was built on decades of stigma, racialized stereotypes, xenophobia, and fears of psychoactive substances manufactured in order to justify regulation of communities of color and leftist political communities. Extending Nixon’s legacy, Ronald Reagan allocated funding for the militarization of law enforcement and expansion of prison construction. Over many decades, the U.S. government has neglected to enact science-based policies to regulate psychoactive substances and has created a system in which predominantly people of color are incarcerated on drug possession charges, families are disrupted through the separation of children from drug using parents, and those diagnosed with substance use disorders are housed in jail and prison cells rather than being provided treatment by medical professionals.
Many political leaders and elected officials have acknowledged that the current system has established a war on people who use drugs, rather than the substances themselves.
Significant reform is needed, and options are many to create a system in which people who use drugs are afforded dignity, respect, freedom, and access to health care.
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Tulsi Gabbard on Criminal Justice Reform
Gabbard pledges she would end the war on drugs.
Gabbard pledges to end cash bail.
Gabbard introduced the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2019, which would limit the application of Federal laws to the distribution and consumption of marijuana and would remove marijuana from the list of Schedule l substances under the Controlled Substances Act.
Gabbard would remove marijuana-related convictions from “otherwise law-abiding Americans.”
Gabbard received increased national attention after criticizing Senator Kamala Harris for her record as former Attorney General for California stating, “... and the people who suffered under your reign as California prosecutor -- you owe them an apology.”
Gabbard would pass the End Money Bail Act, and would provide resources to states to implement a free trial, no money bail system.
Gabbard has pledged to provide resources to states to reduce the jail population, ensure safer communities, and save taxpayer dollars.
Gabbard promises to shut down the school-to-prison pipeline.
Gabbard pledges she will work for clemency reform, including expunging the criminal records of individuals convicted of non-violent drug offenses.
Gabbard says she will work to make house arrest and work release “more viable for non-violent offenders” with the aim to prevent jail and prison entry.
Gabbard would legalize marijuana at the federal level.
Gabbard would ban private prisons.
Gabbard cosponsored the Marijuana Justice Act of 2019, which would economically punish states that do not legalize cannabis and continue to incarcerate or arrest people for cannabis-related offenses.
Gabbard is a cosponsor of the FIRST STEP Act, which aims to reduce the prison population by strengthening evidence-based, rehabilitative programs for those who are incarcerated.
When asked by an audience member at a 2019 CNN Town Hall event if Gabbard would decriminalize all drugs, Gabbard responded by saying that after with meeting with a group of men living in a substance use recovery facility in New Hampshire, she was “impressed by their strength and their resilience,” that we need to end the failed war on drugs, that she feels it is important to identify the root causes of addiction, and discussed her introduction of the Ending the Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2019. CNN host ____ then asked for further detail saying, “So Congresswoman, you’re talking a lot about marijuana, but where do you draw the line on decriminalization, because one of the questions was about all drugs. What do you think about that?” Gabbard replied, “I think that the heart of her question was really recognizing that this is about addiction, not criminalization. Our failed war on drugs has turned everyday Americans who are struggling with substance abuse and addiction and turned them into criminals.” Gabbard did not provide an answer regarding the legalization of all substances.
Gabbard would abolish mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenses.
Gabbard promises to provide expanded education opportunities, vocational training, and mental health services for individuals in prison.
Gabbard promises to never sign another mandatory minimum sentence into law that removes discretion from judges.
“Our outdated policies on marijuana are turning everyday Americans into criminals, tearing apart families, and wasting huge amounts of taxpayer dollars to arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate people for non-violent marijuana charges.”
“We must stand up against for-profit, private prisons and a criminal justice system that favors the rich and powerful and punishes the poor, locking up people who smoke marijuana and ignoring corps like Purdue Pharma responsible for thousands of opioid-related deaths.”
“…too often we have people in positions of power who don’t care about serving the people. They don’t care about actually serving justice. Instead, they are using their position of power and privilege for their own selfish interests. It’s unfortunately because so much a part of the fabric of our society, that we barely bat an eye when Wall Street bankers who have cheated and gambled and lost billions of our money have not served a day in prison, and they are actually rewarded with million-dollar bonuses. We have big pharmaceutical companies, companies like Purdue Pharma, who have cheated and lied to the American people just so they can proliferate these highly addictive opioid drugs on our streets, driving up their profits, ruining people’s lives, causing the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Yet, what happens to them? They walk away. They get a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, on the other hand, we have nonviolent drug offenders arrested, thrown in prison, shackled with a criminal record that will follow them wherever they go forever. These are just two examples of this fundamentally unjust system that we have. We have mass incarceration that’s predominantly impacted poor people and communities of color, people’s lives ruined because of one mistake while others whose entire careers are built on predatory behavior and exploitation of the innocent are routinely excused. This is not justice. Justice must be blind… Anyone who’s come into contact with our prison system in any way knows that it is deeply broken. Not only does our prison system fail to fulfill its function of deterring and correcting crime, it is a central driver of a conveyor belt that sucks our youth into an ever-increasing spiral of offenses, punishment, and collateral consequences.”
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Fix our broken criminal justice system
Tulsi Gabbard campaign website, 2019
Justice for All — Tulsi Gabbard at the South Carolina Criminal Justice Forum
MSNBC, October 29, 2019
Beto O’Rourke on Criminal Justice Reform
O'Rourke proposes to end prohibition of marijuana and expunge arrest records of those incarcerated for possessing it, end cash bail, end mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent offenses, eliminate private and for-profit prisons, ensure the formerly incarcerated have a path to reenter our communities.
O'Rourke proposes to reduce all felony drug possession convictions to misdemeanors and apply this retroactively to those who have already suffered unjustly. These actions will save lives now needlessly lost to incarceration, and billions of dollars that can be reinvested into rehabilitative alternatives.
O'Rourke calls for abolishing private and for-profit prisons, ending the war on drugs, ending mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, reforming the bail process, and providing meaningful reentry to reduce recidivism – rehab services, counseling, banning the box on job applications, and returning the vote.
“We need to not only end the prohibition on marijuana, but also repair the damage done to the communities of color disproportionately locked up in our criminal justice system or locked out of opportunity because of the War on Drugs,” O’Rourke said in a press release. “These inequalities have compounded for decades, as predominantly white communities have been given the vast majority of lucrative business opportunities, while communities of color still face over-policing and criminalization. It’s our responsibility to begin to remedy the injustices of the past and help the people and communities most impacted by this misguided war.”
O’Rourke Unveils a Plan to Legalize Marijuana, End War on Drugs
The Hill | September 19 2019 | Chris Mills Rodrigo
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Beto O’Rourke is Running for President in 2020
Business Insider | Sept 13 2019 | Joe Perticone and Joseph Zeballos-Roig
Texas Should Lead the Way on True Criminal Justice Reform [Opinion]
Houston Chronicle | August 27, 2018 | Beto O’Rourke
Andrew Yang On Criminal Justice Reform
Yang would work to end the use of private prison facilities for federal inmates.
Yang promises to shift drug policy away from punishment and towards treatment.
Yang would push to reconsider harsh felony laws that prevent those who have served their prison term from reintegrating into society.
Yang would implement Universal Basic Income which will dramatically decrease incentives for criminality and improve the functioning of individuals and communities
Yang would work to implement a federal program of pre-trial services that would be made available to states, such as a text message system to remind individuals of their upcoming court dates.
Yang would invest money to fund innovative prison programs that decrease recidivism and increase reintegration.
Yang would invest money to support businesses that hire felons who have served their prison term.
Yang would identify non-violent drug offenders for probation and potential early release.
Yang would work with states to decrease their reliance on cash bail, providing assistance and grants for various programs to increase trial attendance without the need to incarcerate people ahead of conviction.
“People should not be going to jail because they cannot afford to make bail. That’s not the sort of country we are. It should not be criminal to be poor in this country. We can do better by improving the process leading up to a trial date—we should reduce our reliance on bail, and focus on clearer communication and services pre-trial.”
“Our rates of incarceration are 4 times higher than most other industrialized countries, and it’s a national disgrace. People on both sides of the aisle now recognize that our system is badly in need of reform. Our criminal justice system is particularly punitive toward blacks and other minorities. As President I will overhaul the treatment of drug offenses and reduce our rates of incarceration over time.”
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Decrease Pre-Trial Cash Bail
Andrew Yang campaign website, 2019
Elizabeth Warren on Criminal Justice Reform
Warren would end all contracts that the Bureau of Prisons, ICE, and the U.S. Marshals have with private detention providers.
Warren would grant federal public safety funding to states and localities only if they follow the private prisons and detention facilities ban.
Warren pledges to decriminalize mental health crises through Medicare for All and increased access to mental health care services, funding co-responder initiatives that connect law enforcement to mental health care providers and experts, and piloting evidence-based crisis response efforts for people with mental illness.
Warren would Repeal the 1994 Crime Bill.
Warren would eliminate the crack and cocaine sentencing disparity.
Warren pledges to stop criminalizing homelessness, referencing laws that ban behaviors associated with homelessness like sleeping in public or living in vehicles.
Warren would reverse the Trump administration’s policy expanding pre-trial civil forfeiture at the federal level, and would restrict the use of civil forfeiture overall.
Warren would cap criminal debt collection at a percentage of income for low-income individuals, and supports states capping the percentage of municipal revenues derived from the justice system.
Warren would invest in mental and emotional health programs like peer intervention and early warning programs for law enforcement.
Warren would reverse the Jeff Sessions guidance limiting the use of consent decree investigations to investigate police departments.
Warren aims to incentivize states to empower their attorneys general to conduct oversight of police behavior.
Warren would establish federal standards for the use of force for federal law enforcement.
Warren supports limiting qualified immunity for law enforcement officials who are found to have violated the Constitution, and allowing victims to sue police departments directly for negligently hiring officers despite prior misconduct.
Warren would pass legislation to prohibit racial profiling at all levels of law enforcement.
Warren would expand federal funding for body cameras.
Warren would expand federal funding for public defenders.
Warren would provide funding for language and cultural competency training for public defenders.
Warren would establish an advisory board of people who have experienced violence and formerly incarcerated individuals.
Warren would repeal overly restrictive habeas corpus rules in order to make the appeals process easier for individuals who were wrongfully imprisoned.
Warren pledges to break the school-to-prison pipeline.
Warren promises to invest in evidence-based interruption programs, which are aimed at preventing violence and diverting criminal behavior.
Warren would invest in diversion programs for substance abuse disorder.
Warren would legalize marijuana and expunge previous convictions.
Warren would expand options that divert people with substance use disorder from incarceration into programs that provide “real” treatment.
Warren would end cash bail.
Warren would restrict fines and fees levied for individuals before adjudication.
Warren would end the practice of charging fees to incarcerated people for necessary services like phone calls, bank transfers, and health care. Warren would also prevent private companies from profiting off of individuals for incarceration and supervision, including through fees for re-entry, supervision, and probation.
Warren would develop a government database and data collection process in the Justice Department to collect law enforcement data related to fatal police shootings, ethics issues, misconduct complaints, use of force incidents, etc.
Warren would triple funding for the Office of Civil Rights to allow for increased investigations of police departments with the highest rates of police violence and whenever there is a death in custody.
Warren will implement a grant program to fund communities that establish an independent civilian oversight mechanism for their police departments.
Warren would provide incentives for cities and states to increase and improve law enforcement training in areas like implicit bias, discrimination, cultural competency, and engaging with individuals with disabilities.
Warren would end stop-and-frisk by instructing the Justice Department to withhold federal funding from law enforcement agencies that continue to employ it and similar practices.
Warren would eliminate the transfer of military-grade weapons and lethal equipment to local police via the 1033 program, would prohibit local law enforcement from buying military equipment with federal funding, and would create a buy-back program for equipment already in use.
Warren would establish a task force on digital privacy in public safety to establish guidelines for surveillance technology.
Warren would reopen and expand the DOJ’s Office for Access to Justice, which works to expand access to counsel.
Warren would “reduce or eliminate” mandatory minimum sentences.
Warren promises to rein in prosecutorial abuses, including by reducing the use of coercive plea bargaining by DOJ prosecutors at the federal level, establishing open-file discovery, and putting in place responsible standards for evidence gathering. Warren would establish a Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct to make additional recommendations for best practices and monitor adoption of those recommendations, and would create an independent prosecutorial integrity unit to hold accountable prosecutors who abuse their power.
Warren would work to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act and would provide full funding to eliminate the rape kit backlog.
“Our criminal justice system is broken—and race is right at the center of what’s wrong. Black Americans are more likely to be arrested, wrongfully convicted, and serve longer sentences than white Americans. It’s time to end mass incarceration.”
Ending private prisons and exploitation for profit
Medium, 2019 | Elizabeth Warren
“We need significant reform in both criminal justice and in immigration, to end mass incarceration and all of the unnecessary, cruel, and punitive forms of immigration detention that have taken root in the Trump Administration.”
Ending private prisons and exploitation for profit
Medium, 2019 | Elizabeth Warren
“It’s not equal justice when a kid with an ounce of pot can get thrown in jail, while a bank executive who launders money for a drug cartel can get a bonus. It’s long past time for us to reform our system.”
Ending private prisons and exploitation for profit
Medium, 2019 | Elizabeth Warren
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Ending private prisons and exploitation for profit
Medium, June 21, 2019 | Elizabeth Warren
Bernie Sanders on Criminal Justice Reform
Sanders co-sponsored the "Recidivism Reduction and Second Chance Act of 2007
Sanders voted in favor of the 1994 crime bill authored by Joe Biden. He has since stated that this was due to specific provisions in the bill which he favored, including the Violence Against Women Act and a 10-year assault weapons ban. At the time, Sanders stated, “I have a number of serious problems with the Crime Bill, but one part of it that I vigorously support is the Violence Against Women Act. We urgently need the $1.8 billion in this bill to combat the epidemic of violence against women on the streets and in the homes of America.”
Sanders voted for an amendment to the 1994 crime bill to ban the federal death penalty.
Sanders would legalize marijuana and vacate and expunge past marijuana convictions.
Sanders would raise the threshold for when drug charges are federalized, as federal charges carry longer sentences.
Sanders would ban for-profit prisons.
Sanders would incentivize states and localities to end police departments’ reliance on fines and fees for revenue.
Sanders promises to “stop excessive sentencing with the goal of cutting the incarcerated population in half.”
Sanders would reverse the Trump administration’s guidance on the use of death penalty drugs with the goal of ending the death penalty at the state level.
Sanders would abolish the death penalty.
Sanders would end cash bail.
Sanders would end “three strikes” laws.
Sanders would expand the use of sentencing alternatives, including community supervision and publicly funded halfway houses. This includes funding state-based pilot programs to establish alternatives to incarceration, including models based on restorative justice and free access to treatment and social services.
Sanders would make expungement broadly available.
Sanders would remove legal and regulatory barriers and facilitate access to services for people returning home from jail or prison.
Sanders would create a federal agency responsible for monitoring re-entry.
Sanders would enact fair chance licensing reform to remove unfair restrictions on occupational licensure based on criminal history.
Sanders would guarantee jobs and free job training at trade schools and apprenticeship programs for people leaving jail or prison.
Sanders would decriminalize truancy for all youth and their parents.
Sanders would end solitary confinement for youth.
Sanders would fund states and municipalities to create civilian corps of unarmed first responders for low-level incidents.
Sanders would ban the prosecution of children under the age of 18 in adult courts.
Sanders would triple congressional spending on indigent defense, to $14 billion annually.
Sanders voted against the 1991 crime bill stating, “This is not a crime prevention bill. This is a punishment bill, a retribution bill, a vengeance bill.”
Sanders voted in favor of at least one amendment to the 1994 crime bill to allocate 10.5 billion more in grants to states for prison construction. The Sanders campaign has said this was in an effort to “strip out” other language which would have expanded the crimes for which individuals could be sentenced.
Sanders supported the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2014, which would have adjusted federal mandatory sentencing guidelines for a number of crimes in an effort to reduce the size of the current U.S. prison population. Namely, it would have reduced mandatory sentences for drug offenses, would have expanded the ability of non-violent offenders to reduce their sentences, and would have enabled federal prisoners to seek retroactive sentence adjustment under the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010.
Sanders would institute a full review of the current sentencing guidelines and end the sentencing disparity between crack and cocaine.
Sanders supports removing questions regarding conviction histories from job and other applications.
Sanders would minimize costs for incarcerated individuals by making prison phone calls and other communications free, and would audit the practices of commissaries.
Sanders would ensure that diversion, community supervision, or treatment programs are free.
Sanders would end mandatory sentencing minimums.
Sanders promises to improve law enforcement accountability by banning the use of facial recognition software for policing; conducting a U.S. Attorney General’s investigation whenever someone is killed in police custody; establish a federal no-call policy; mandating criminal liability for civil rights violations resulting from police misconduct; creating federal standards for the use of body cameras; providing grants for cities and states to establish civilian oversight agencies; creating a federal database of police use of deadly force; ending federal programs that provide military equipment to local police forces; rescinding former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ guidance on consent decrees; and revitalizing the use of DOJ investigations, consent decrees, and federal lawsuits to address systemic constitutional violations by police departments.
Sanders would reinstate a federal parole system and end truth-in-sentencing. People serving long sentences will undergo a “second look” process to make sure their sentence is still appropriate.
Sanders would “invigorate and expand” the compassionate release process so that people with disabilities, the sick and elderly are transitioned out of incarceration whenever possible.
Sanders would create an independent clemency board in the White House that would be removed from the Department of Justice.
Sanders would enact a Prisoner Bill of Rights that guarantees ending solitary confinement; access to free medical care in prisons and jails, including professional and evidence-based substance abuse and trauma-informed mental health treatment; incarcerated trans people have access to all the health care they need; access to free educational and vocational training (this includes ending the ban on Pell Grants for all incarcerated people without any exceptions; living wages and safe working conditions, including maximum work hours, for all incarcerated people for their labor; the right to vote while incarcerated; ending prison gerrymandering, ensuring incarcerated people are counted in their communities, not where they are incarcerated; establishment of an Office of Prisoner Civil Rights and Civil Liberties within the Department of Justice to investigate civil rights complaints from incarcerated individuals and provide independent oversight to make sure that prisoners are housed in safe, healthy, environments; protection from sexual abuse and harassment, including mandatory federal prosecution of prison staff who engage in such misconduct; access to their families — including unlimited visits, phone calls, and video calls; and a determination for the most appropriate setting for people with disabilities and safe, accessible conditions for people with disabilities in prisons and jails.
Sanders would bar criminal charges for school-based behavior that would not otherwise be criminal.
Sanders would use Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision to challenge states that have failed to adequately support the voluntary, community-based mental health services that can divert people with mental illness from ending up in the criminal justice system.
Sanders would prevent juveniles from being housed in adult prisons.
Sanders would ban the practice of any law enforcement agency benefiting from civil asset forfeiture.
Sanders would abolish long mandatory minimum sentences and life-without-parole sentences for youth.
Sanders would mandate and fund police officer training on implicit bias, cultural competency, de-escalation, crisis intervention, adolescent development, and interacting with individuals with disabilities.
“Look, the first thing we have to recognize is that our criminal justice system is not just broken. It is deeply, deeply, deeply broken. It is a dysfunctional system, which is punishing millions of people unnecessarily.”
Then Representative Bernie Sanders while speaking on the floor of the U.S. House of Representative floor on April 13, 1994 stated, “It is my firm belief that clearly there are people in our society who are horribly violent, who are deeply sick and sociopathic, and clearly these people must be put behind bars in order to protect society from them. But it is also my view that through the neglect of our government and through a grossly irrational set of priorities, we are dooming today tens of millions of young people to a future of bitterness, misery, hopelessness, drugs, crime, and violence. And, Mr. Speaker, all the jails in the world — and we already imprison more people per capita than any other country — and all of the executions … in the world will not make that situation right… We can either educate or electrocute. We can create meaningful jobs, rebuilding our society, or we can build more jails. Mr. Speaker, let us create a society of hope and compassion, not one of hate and vengeance.”
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Justice and Safety for All
Bernie Sanders campaign website, 2019
Bernie Sanders unveils plan to overhaul country’s ‘dysfunctional criminal justice system’
CNN, August 18, 2019 | Devan Cole
Bernie Sanders On His Criminal Justice Overhaul Plan
NPR, August 18, 2019 | Lulu Garcia-Navarro
Bernie Sanders has dodged criticism for crime bill vote while others have not
NBC, June 23, 2019 | Heidi Przybyla
Bernie Sanders voted for the 1994 tough-on-crime law. But it’s complicated.
Vox, April 8, 2016 | German Lopez
Amy Klobuchar on Criminal Justice Reform
Klobuchar would create a position in the White House that exists outside of the Department of Justice to advise the president on criminal justice reform issues.
Klobuchar would create a bipartisan clemency advisory board that would include victim advocates and prison and sentencing reform advocates to investigate and review requests for clemency.
As a prosecutor in Hennepin County, Klobuchar pursued harsher penalties for repeat offenses, including drunk driving, failure to pay child support, and more.
Klobuchar will direct the Department of Justice to decline to renew or reduce the scope of contracts for private prisons when the contract reaches its end, aiming to phase out the use of private prisons.
Klobuchar previously served as a prosecutor for Hennepin County in Minnesota.
When data showed that a local drug court in Hennepin County was sentencing many drug offenders to probation instead of prison, Klobuchar called the results “unacceptable,” adding, “We believe that they should serve a lengthier sentence instead of going to the workhouse and that they should be behind bars.” Klobuchar was a prosecutor in Hennepin County at the time.
Prosecutors criticize Drug Court
Star Tribune, July 13, 2006
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Klobuchar: On criminal justice reform, it’s time for a second step
CNN, April 5, 2019 | Amy Klobuchar
Senator Amy Klobuchar Releases Plan of More Than 100 Actions for Her First 100 Days as President
Medium, June 18, 2019 | Amy for America
Amy Klobuchar’s record as a “tough on crime” prosecutor, explained
Vox, February 25, 2019 | German Lopez
Kamala Harris on Criminal Justice Reform
In 2004, as District Attorney of San Francisco, Harris refused to seek the death penalty against a man convicted of shooting police officer Isaac Espinoza. She faced opposition from fellow Democrats, including Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) who called for the death penalty at the officer’s funeral. Following that incident, she received almost no support from police groups during her first run for attorney general in 2010.
Harris created the “Back on Track” program which allowed first-time drug offenders, including drug dealers, to get a high school diploma and a job instead of prison time. Adams, Harris’s spokesperson, noted that the program started in 2005, “when most prosecutors were using a ‘tough on crime’ approach.”
Harris promises to end the War on Drugs.
Harris would create grant programs to provide services to those most adversely impacted by the War on Drugs, provide states and localities with funds to make loans to assist small businesses in the marijuana industry, and provide funds for programs that minimize marijana licensing and employment barriers.
Harris is a cosponsor of the Justice Safety Valve Act, which would eliminate mandatory minimums by allowing judges to issue sentences below the mandatory minimum.
Harris would remove the clemency process from the Department of Justice due to inherent conflicts of interest.
Harris would create a new National Criminal Justice Commission to study state and federal criminal justice systems.
Harris would end the use of private prisons.
Harris would work to end juvenile incarceration, life sentences of children, the transfer of children to adult prisons, solitary confinement for children, and criminal charges for school-based disciplinary behavior.
Harris would mandate that federal prisons provide educational and vocational training, and mental health and addiction treatment.
Harris supports ban the box.
Harris introduced the Fair Chance at Housing Act of 2019 with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, which helps to remove barriers to obtaining federal housing assistance for individuals with criminal records.
Harris would create a National Police Systems Review Board.
Harris would double the size of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
Harris would end the use of fines and fees that criminalize the poor, including ending suspension of driver’s licenses for unpaid fines.
Harris would increase prosecutorial accountability and would increase support for public defenders.
Harris pledges to end mass incarceration, and invest in community-based programs to reduce crime and promote safe and healthy communities.
Harris promises to make significant federal investments into evidence-based, non-carceral social supports and programs to improve public safety and reduce violence, including investing in jobs, job training, housing, transportation, food security, education, medical care and mental health care.
Harris will legalize marijuana on the federal level and expunge marijuana convictions.
Harris pledges to invest in reducing the incarceration of women convicted of non-violent offenses.
Harris would end mandatory minimums at the federal level.
Harris would form clemency/sentencing review units to significantly increase the use of clemency.
Harris would end the federal crack and powder cocaine sentencing disparity.
Harris pledges to reform community supervision by shortening the length of probation and ending jail time for technical violations of community-based supervision.
Harris would create a Bureau of Children and Family Justice.
Harris would invest in Back-on-Track programs.
Harris would mandate that federal prisons provide a reentry educational course.
Harris would end federal bans on formerly-incarcerated and arrested individuals access to public housing, student loans, SNAP and professional work licenses.
Harris supports automatic expungement and sealing of offenses that are not serious or violent after 5 years.
Harris supports independent investigations of officer-involved shootings.
Harris would end the death penalty and solitary confinement.
Harris would reinstate President Obama’s executive order to de-militarize police departments.
Harris would end money bail.
“I’ve been consistent my whole career. My career has been based on an understanding, one, that my duty as a prosecutor was to seek and make sure that the most vulnerable and voiceless among us are protected, and that is why I have personally prosecuted violent crime that includes rape, child molestation, and homicide. And, I have also worked my entire career to reform the criminal justice system, understanding, to your point, that it is deeply flawed and in need of repair, which is why, as attorney general for example, I led the Department of Justice, which is the largest state department of justice in any state, in California and implemented the first of its kind in the nation, implicit bias and procedural justice training for police officers. It is why I created the first in the nation for any department of justice an open data initiative that we named “Open Justice” for the first time making transparent and showing the public statistics around deaths in custody, arrest rates by race, and making that information available to the public. I instituted a policy around requiring the agents who worked in my division, which is the first of its kind for a state agency, to wear body cameras. I created an initiative back when I was DA, and this was when, by the way, this was the 90’s and the early 2000’s, where you could talk to DAs around the country and you’d mention the word re-entry, and they didn’t know what you were talking about. This was when there was a “tough-on-crime” mentality, and I created one of the first in the nation initiatives that was focused on re-entering former offenders by getting them jobs, and training, and counseling, and it ended up being something that, thankfully, in these ensuing 15 years, is something that is regularly talked about by district attorneys, but back when we created this, that was not happening. On the issue of the death penalty, I am personally opposed to the death penalty. I’ve always been opposed to the death penalty, and that’s not gonna change.”
Town Hall with Senator Kamala Harris
CNN, January 28, 2019
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Kamala Harris Was Not a ‘Progressive Prosecutor’
The New York Times, January 17, 2019 | Lara Bazelon
Kamala’s Plan to Transform the Criminal Justice System and Re-Envision Public Safety in America
Candidate Website
Kamala Harris’s criminal justice reform plan, explained
Vox, September 9, 2019 | German Lopez
Julián Castro on Criminal Justice Reform
Castro promises to end the War on Drugs.
Castro pledges to increase security at U.S. ports of entry to prevent the trafficking of drugs like fentanyl into the U.S. When asked in a Nov. 2019 conversation with IHRC to expand on this promise, Castro responded, “Well I think that again, we need to strike a strong balance to the extent that there’s a usefulness for fentanyl in some instances than similar substances. I mean, I want to make sure that they’re available, but about three or four months ago we had the largest bust of fentanyl in the nation’s history, which was 254 pounds that came through a port of entry in Arizona. What I see is a lot of smuggling through these ports of entry, illegal fentanyl, and I believe that’s one way, that’s one area, where we can do a better job of preventing that entry into the United States, that we can be more vigilant. I see that still as consistent with ensuring that people have what they need and taking a change in direction in cracking down on the individual, which has really been a large part of the war on drugs is penalizing the individuals who end up in the grips of usage and often suffer from that. I don't believe in that approach, but I also don’t believe in substances, illegal substances coming through ports of entry that shouldn’t be coming through there. So, I think that we can do both of those things.”
Castro promises to eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, and will order a federal review of all other sentencing guidelines to address other possible racial disparities in sentencing.
Castro would reform the plea system, allowing for more support for defendants.
Castro would allow individuals up to the age of 21 to be tried as juveniles.
Castro would repeal the 1994 crime bill’s mandatory minimums and three strikes laws.
Castro would create a new $500 million federal grant program to invest in public defenders.
Castro would work to end abusive civil asset forfeiture.
Castro would ban the use of for-profit contractors in prisons.
Castro would abolish the death penalty.
Castro would strengthen enforcement of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA).
Castro supports reforms to end the practice of shackling mothers during delivery of a child.
Castro would direct the Department of Justice to adequately enforce all laws and regulations to protect the rights of disabled prisoners, require prisons to have designated staff empowered to protect the needs of disabled prisoners, require publicly available data collected on the condition of disabled prisoners, and pass legislation reducing the number of disabled people incarcerated, including by increasing access to criminal justice diversion programs, and providing community-based mental health services.
Castro would repeal the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which significantly restricts prisoners’ ability to file lawsuits based on the conditions of their confinement.
Castro supports improving educational opportunities for juvenile and adult individuals who are incarcerated, such as increasing access to high-level classes, and credit-recovery opportunities.
Castro would promote non-armed responses to 911 calls by establishing partnerships between mental health units and other first responders, including crisis intervention services by medics, counselors, and social workers, rather than armed police officers.
Castro would work to increase housing assistance for formerly incarcerated people, and would pass legislation requiring States that receive benefits to lift the lifetime ban on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits for people with felony drug convictions.
Castro would establish an independent commission to review cases of non-violent offenders and make continuing recommendations to the President on clemency.
Castro would ban the use of deadly force unless there is an imminent threat to the life of another person and all other reasonable alternatives have been exhausted.
Castro favors legalization of marijuana, and believes a key component of marijuana legalization is the expungement of marijuana-related charges for individuals with existing charges on their records.
Castro believes there should be harsher penalties for individuals who sell drugs or traffick drugs into the U.S.
Castro would end cash bail, would support compensation for individuals who are detained pretrial but are later released or acquitted, and would limit pre-trial detention.
Castro promises to end the criminalization of youth by setting a stricter standard for juvenile incarceration, and limit the number of separations of children from their families. Castro would support state efforts to abolish youth prisons, and would redirect funds to community-based, accessible, trauma-informed, and developmentally appropriate programs. Castro would also fund the DOJ and Department of Education to track and respond to civil rights allegations in the youth justice system.
Castro would work to end the practice of trying minors as adults and holding minors in adult facilities.
Castro would reopen and expand the Office for Access to Justice.
Castro would work to improve accessibility within the court system to assist individuals with transportation and to improve accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
Castro would close all for-profit prisons and detention centers.
Castro would guarantee fair wages for any labor performed while incarcerated.
Castro would ban the use of solitary confinement.
Castro would require free access to reproductive health care for incarcerated people.
Castro would guarantee access to gender-confirmation surgery and appropriate accommodations for trans people who are incarcerated.
Castro promises to create an advisory council of currently and formerly incarcerated people, tasked with advising on better conditions within federal prisons and how to prevent incarceration in the first place.
Castro would develop “Second Chance Centers… a single place in a community where formerly incarcerated individuals can get all the information and help they need to re-engage in society.”
Castro pledges to end the discrimination against formely incarcerated people in admissions and financial aid, including repealing restriction on Pell Grant eligibilty for both current and formerly incarcerated individuals.
Castro would end qualified immunity for police officers, making it easier to hold offending officers accountable under criminal and civil law and create a national public database tracking police officer misconduct.
Castro supports removing questions regarding conviction histories from job and other applications.
Castro supports automatic restoration of voting rights for felons who have served their sentences, and allowing formerly incarcerated persons to participate on juries.
Castro would pass legislation ending racial profiling and stop-and-frisk policies, require police departments to screen for prejudice and demonstrate accountability for all instances of biased policing.
“You can’t tell me that if police can apprehend Dylann Roof –the person who shot up that church in Charleston, South Carolina– without hurting him, that Eric Garner and Tamir Rice and Jason Pero and Sandra Bland shouldn’t still be alive today, too.”
Full Video: Sec. Julian Castro at MoveOn’s Big Ideas Forum
MoveOn, June 2, 2019
“I would also restrict or even eliminate qualified immunity. Qualified immunity is a doctrine in law that has shielded police officers that engage in excessive force from being sued civilly successfully. And you know the doctrine has completely gone off the rails and protected very bad behavior. We need to change that.”
Julian Castro – IHRC 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Forum on the Overdose Crisis – Event 2
November 23, 2019
“We need a new approach to criminal justice, one that prioritizes prevention, not prison, creates a restorative justice system, heals the wounds of incarceration, and ensures every person has an effective first chance… Drug use and addiction is primarily a public health challenge. In dealing with it primarily as a criminal issue, we have shattered communities, strengthened criminal groups, and locked up those who did not deserve it. As president, I will bring our misguided War on Drugs to an end.”
The First Chance Plan
Julian Castro campaign website, 2019
“So, I’ve come up with a plan to try and fix that [racial disparities in policing]…because I don’t believe that the color of your skin, or whether you live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa or San Francisco, California should determine whether you have one standard or another. I think that a police officer should have the same standard for when they’re going to discharge their weapon and potentially kill somebody… Because what I want is that no matter who you are in the country, no matter the color of your skin, what neighborhood you grow up in, and how much money you have or don’t have, when you see a police officer, you feel safer. We can’t say that. Not everybody can say that right now in our country. I want to make sure that Washington is a strong partner with local police departments and state governments so that everybody can feel that way. And, our police officers, a lot of whom do great work and deserve credit for it, they can make sure they’re as safe as possible and they’re able to carry out their duty.”
Julian Castro – IHRC 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Forum on the Overdose Crisis – Event 2
November 23, 2019
Read More
The First Chance Plan
Julian Castro campaign website, 2019
Julián Castro has an ambitious plan to fix American policing
Vox, June 4, 2019
P.R. Lockhart
People First Policing Plan
Julian Castro campaign website, 2019
Julian Castro – IHRC 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Forum on the Overdose Crisis – Event 2
November 23, 2019
Julian Castro presidency would make sure patients who actually need opioids could get them
Blake Dodge, November 30, 2019 | Newsweek
Julian Castro Open To Decriminalizing Drugs And Endorses Safe Consumption Sites
Kyle Jaeger, November 29, 2019 | Marijuana Moment
IHRC discusses drug policy with presidential candidates
Brian Tabick, November 23, 2019 | KCRG
Harris highlights contrasts with rivals Sanders, Warren
O. Kay Henderson, November 25, 2019 | Radio Iowa
Pete Buttigieg on Criminal Justice Reform
Buttigieg pledges to end cash bail.
Buttigieg plans to eliminate private prisons.
Buttigieg wants to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences.
Buttigieg pledges to commute the sentences of people who are incarcerated in the federal system by establishing an independent clemency commission outside the Department of Justice.
Buttigieg would abolish capital punishment.
Buttigieg would work to eliminate arrests and incarceration as punishment for failing to pay legal financial obligations, require states to account for a person’s ability to pay before levying fines and fees, and end practices that create additional economic burdens, such as suspending driver’s licenses for failing to pay criminal justice debts.
Read More
What Pete Buttigieg Has and Hasn’t Done About Homelessness in South Bend
The New Yorker, June 19, 2019 | Charles Bethea
The Full Plan – Healing and Belonging in America: A Plan to Improve Mental Health Care and Combat Addiction
August 23, 2019
Cory Booker on Criminal Justice Reform
Booker is the author of the 2018 First Step Act, which aims to reduce federal mass incarceration by reducing and restricting enhanced sentences for prior drug felonies, and through evidence-based treatment for opioid and heroin use. This was signed into law by President Trump.
In March 2019, Booker introduced the Next Step Act, which includes a number of criminal justice reforms, including reducing mandatory sentences for non-violent drug offenses, banning racial and religious profiling, removing questions regarding conviction histories from job and other applications, and expunging records for marijuana-related charges.
Booker would eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine.
Booker pledges to reinvest in the communities most impacted by the failed War on Drugs.
Booker would expand training for law enforcement officers on implicit racial bias, de-escalation and use-of-force.
Booker would decriminalize marijuana and expunge records for marijuana-related charges
Booker would extend clemency to individuals serving excessive sentences for nonviolent drug offenses.
Booker would end mandatory minimums for nonviolent drug offenses.
Booker supports removing questions regarding conviction histories from job and other applications.
Booker would prohibit racial and religious profiling and improve the reporting of police use-of-force incidents.
Booker would “absolutely” consider mass pardons or commutations for federal marijuana offenses.
“You can tell a lot about a country by who it incarcerates. Some countries imprison journalists. Others imprison political opponents. We imprison the poor, the addicted, the mentally ill, the survivors of abuse and sexual assault, and black and brown people. Our broken criminal justice system is a cancer on the soul of our nation that preys upon our most marginalized populations. It’s time we developed a cure.”
Cory Booker: It’s time for the next step in criminal justice reform
The Washington Post, March 10, 2019 | Cory Booker
Read More
Cory Booker is running for president in 2020. Here’s everything we know about the candidate and how he stacks up against the competition.
Business Insider, September 13, 2019 | John Haltiwanger and Joseph Zeballos-Roig
Criminal Justice
Cory Booker campaign website, 2019
Cory Booker takes the lead on criminal justice reform in 2020 campaign with new bill
CNBC, March 7, 2019 | Carmin Chappell
Cory Booker: It’s time for the next step in criminal justice reform
The Washington Post, March 10, 2019 | Cory Booker
Booker showcases pragmatic side in town hall
Politico, March 28, 2019 | Nolan D. McCaskill
Get Involved
Overdose Prevention Sites
Overdose Prevention Sites
Overdose prevention sites are also commonly known as safe consumption spaces, or safe injection facilities. Nearly 100 exist all over the world, including in Canada, and no overdose deaths have ever been recorded in one such facility. In these spaces, people who use drugs may enter and consume any substance under the supervision of a medical professional.
While professionals do not facilitate drug use, their presence ensures that if someone begins to experience adverse consequences (eg. overdose), they may administer narcan / naloxone or provide other medical interventions.
In communities where overdose is of significant concern, safe consumption spaces offer the promise of reduced overdose fatalities. Yet in order to allow these facilities to operate in the US, significant support is necessary from federal officials.
READ MORE
Tulsi Gabbard on Overdose Prevention Sites
When asked by a radio listener during an interview how Gabbard feels about “needle exchange programs and these safe spaces for people who if they have an addiction to drugs and whatnot,” Gabbard expressed support. It is unclear whether the radio listener was referring to safe consumption spaces in her question, or as to whether Gabbard’s answer of support was meant to include safe consumption spaces.
When asked by a listener in a radio interview with New Hampshire Public Radio how Gabbard felt about needle exchange programs and safe consumption spaces, Gabbard answered, “I think that these programs, and I’ve heard a lot about kind of the Hub and Spoke program here in New Hampshire that are being implemented at the local level, do so much towards helping people find that safe space to begin that tough path towards recovery, towards ending that addiction. I want to bring up one thing that I think the state legislature here [New Hampshire] has passed, I think through the House [of Representatives], and that that is marijuana. I’ve introduced legislation at the federal level to end the federal marijuana prohibition for a whole host of reasons, but one of which is how we’ve seen a direct correlation in states that have either passed medical marijuana or completely decriminalized marijuana. We’ve seen that correlation in a drop in opioid addiction and also a correlating drop in opioid related deaths. So I think there’s a number of different avenues that we need to pursue to address this opioid crisis. Not a single one of them alone will be effective in doing so, but we have to treat it like the crisis that it is both in accountability and prosecution for those responsible for proliferating these drugs, and recovery and treatment and help for those who are suffering at the brunt of this crisis.” NHPR host Peter Biello followed up by asking for a clear yes or no on whether needle exchanges are a “good idea.” Gabbard responded, “Yes.”
Read More
2020 Candidate Conversation: U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
March 21, 2019 | New Hampshire Public Radio
Beto O’Rourke on Overdose Prevention Sites
O’Rourke has publicly supported the creation of overdose prevention sites, also known as safe consumption spaces. He has stated that he would allow communities to establish such programs. His proposed strategy to address the opioid crisis includes specific support for the systematic implementation of overdose prevention sites.
When voicing support for safe consumption spaces: “People who use drugs are human beings and deserve to be treated with respect.”
Regarding safe consumption spaces: “I want this to be a human and humane policy. I want it to be informed, guided and driven by the very people who are working on this, working through substance abuse challenges.”
Read More
In Iowa, Beto O’Rourke says he supports needle exchanges, safe injection sites for drug users
Iowa City Press-Citizen | Hilary Ojeda | October 24, 2019
Watch: Beto talks safe injection facilities at the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition
October 24, 2019
Beto’s Plan to Address Substance Use Disorders and the Opioid Epidemic
Medium | October 24, 2019 | Beto O’Rourke
Andrew Yang On Overdose Prevention Sites
Yang supports overdose prevention sites.
On August 7, 2019 Yang tweeted his support for safe consumption sites in the US. Yang’s tweet read “We need more evolved approaches to opiate addiction. Overdose prevention sites would save lives – they are already helping people struggling with substance abuse in other countries. ‘You can’t recover if you’re dead.”
2020 Candidate Andrew Yang Tweets Support for Safe Consumption Spaces
Filter, August 8, 2019 | Alexander Lekhtman
Read More
2020 Candidate Andrew Yang Tweets Support for Safe Consumption Spaces
Filter, August 8, 2019
Alexander Lekhtman
Opioid Crisis
Andrew Yang campaign website, 2019
Elizabeth Warren on Overdose Prevention Sites
Warren supports legalization of safe consumption sites.
“I’ll support evidence-based safe injection sites and needle exchanges, and expand the availability of buprenorphine to prevent overdoses.”
Sanders and Warren back legalization of injection sites for drug users
Truthout, August 29, 2019 | Mike Ludwig
“We need evidence-based solutions to combat the opioid epidemic and if the science shows that supervised injection helps reduce death and get people into treatment programs, then I will support what the science shows. When we have proven ways to reduce harm connected to HIV/AIDS – like needle exchanges to address the multiple use of needles – then I support it.”
How Would The 2020 Presidential Candidates End the HIV Epidemic?
AIDS United, September 13, 2019
Read More
Sanders and Warren back legalization of injection sites for drug users
Truthout, August 29, 2019 | Mike Ludwig
Rethinking public safety to reduce mass incarceration and strengthen communities
Medium, August 20, 2019 | Elizabeth Warren
Bernie Sanders on Overdose Prevention Sites
Sanders would legalize safe injection sites, and would support pilot programs for supervised injection sites.
Read More
Justice and Safety for All
Bernie Sanders campaign website, 2019
Amy Klobuchar on Overdose Prevention Sites
Klobuchar has not issued specific statements to this issue
Kamala Harris on Overdose Prevention Sites
Harris has not issued specific statements to this issue.
Read More
How the Democratic presidential candidates would combat the opioid epidemic
Vox, September 10, 2019
Julián Castro on Overdose Prevention Sites
In a conversation with IHRC, Castro expressed support for allowing cities to pilot overdose prevention site programs.
When asked by IHRC how Castro would instruct the Department of Justice as President to respond to safe consumption space efforts in cities like Philadelphia, Castro responded, “Well I would like these communities to be able to pursue these safe consumption spaces and essentially pilot out how they work. I believe that we owe it to the effort to see how we can make sure that we avoid these kinds of tragic circumstances… We’ve been trying it one way for so long, and I also believe, having been a Mayor of a city, that one of the values of local communities is that they can try out policy in their own community and measure the results and see how it works, because the system that we have in place right now doesn’t seem to be working very much at all. So… whether it’s Philadelphia or at some of the other cities that have tried it, I believe that we should allow for the piloting of these programs, and that that will help us come to a determination nationally about the approach.”
Read More
How the Democratic presidential candidates would combat the opioid epidemic
Vox, September 10, 2019
Julian Castro – IHRC 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Forum on the Overdose Crisis – Event 2
November 23, 2019
Julian Castro Open To Decriminalizing Drugs And Endorses Safe Consumption Sites
Kyle Jaeger, November 29, 2019 | Marijuana Moment
IHRC discusses drug policy with presidential candidates
Brian Tabick, November 23, 2019 | KCRG
Pete Buttigieg on Overdose Prevention Sites
Buttigieg would ensure that federal funds are available for safe injection site pilot programs, and would not allow states’ safe injection sites to be impeded by federal law enforcement policies.
Read More
Becoming Whole: A New Era for LGBTQ+ Americans
Pete Buttigieg, 2019
Cory Booker on Overdose Prevention Sites
Booker has not explicitly endorsed safe injection sites in publications, but told a constituent, on video, that he supports them.
“I fought hard as a mayor to open our first needle exchange center. Safe injection sites, I’m fully in favor of them.”
Cory Booker Confronted By Girl On Substance Abuse
NowThis News, May 19, 2019
“It was a big mistake when it was made. We thought, we were told by the experts, that crack — you never go back; it was somehow fundamentally different. It’s not different, but it’s trapped an entire generation… [I] may not have always gotten things right.” – At a January, 2019 breakfast commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. in reference to the 1988 legislation. Source
Read More
Cory Booker Confronted By Girl On Substance Abuse
NowThis News, May 29, 2019
Get Involved
Naloxone Access
Naloxone Access
Naloxone (brand name Narcan) is an opioid antagonist that, when administered, acts to block the brain’s opioid receptors. This means that in the event of an overdose, naloxone can be administered in order to reverse the effects of the toxic opioid, and thus bringing the overdosing individual back to life.
Naloxone is a medication that is often referred to as, “safer than tylenol,” “a magic bullet,” and “one of the safest, least misused, drugs available.” Despites its power and efficacy, naloxone remains difficult to access in many states.
A number of studies have found that naloxone can be safely and effectively distributed to and used by lay persons (i.e. people who use drugs), but stigma prevails, and many states do not have programs that make naloxone readily available via community-based organizations that, especially those that actively engage people who use drugs. There are many solutions that the federal government may enact in order to expand the availability of naloxone to people who use drugs around the U.S. including acknowledging that the most effective naloxone distribution programs are, in fact, community-based organizations made up of and working with people who use drugs.
READ MORE
Tulsi Gabbard on Naloxone Access
Gabbard has not issued specific statements to this issue.
Julián Castro on Naloxone Access
Castro has not issued specific statements to this issue
Beto O’Rourke on Naloxone Access
O'Rourke supports the expansion of access to naloxone by creating funding opportunities in development with people who have lived experience.
O'Rourke believes that naloxone should be accessible to first responders, law enforcement, and public spaces. He cites the Denver Public Library System, which saved 14 lives in 2017 because narcan was readily available and public employees had been trained on administration.
Read More
Beto O’Rourke on the Record about Mental Health and Addiction
Mental Health for US
Watch: Beto talks naloxone at the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition
Beto’s Plan to Address Substance Use Disorders and the Opioid Epidemic
Medium | October 24, 2019 | Beto O’Rourke
Andrew Yang on Naloxone Access
Yang has not issued specific statements to this issue.
Elizabeth Warren on Naloxone Access
Warren says that her proposed Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act would provide $500 million per year to expand access to overdose reversal drugs (Naloxone) and provide this life-saving medicine to states for distribution to first responders, public health departments, and the public.
Read More
Warren, Cummings, and More than 95 Colleagues in Senate and House Reintroduce Comprehensive CARE Act to Combat the Opioid and Substance Use Epidemic
Warren senate website, May 8, 2019 | Press Release
Bernie Sanders on Naloxone
Sanders signed onto a 2017 letter to President Trump, asking him to follow the recommendations of his Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis and allow the government to negotiate lower prices for naloxone. I22 One of the signers to a 2018 letter to the HHS director asking for immediate action to reduce the price of naloxone.
Sanders co-sponsored the 2016 CARA bill, which in part, aims to increase the availability of naloxone.
Sanders would ensure that first responders carry naloxone to prevent overdoses.
From the 2018 letter to the HHS director, sent by 17 senators: “No police officer, no firefighter, no public health provider, and no person should be unable to save a life because of the high price. By bringing down the cost, we can get this life-saving drug in the hands of more people as called for by the Surgeon General. Doing so will save countless lives.”
Read More
Klobuchar, Smith, Senators Call on Administration to Take Immediate Action to Reduce Price of Naloxone, a Life-Saving Opioid Overdose Reversal Drug
Klobuchar Senate Website, April 30, 2018
Blumenthal, Murphy Call on President To Allow Government to Negotiate Lower Prices for Naloxone, a Life-Saving Opioid Overdose Reversal Drug
Office of Senator Richard Blumenthal, October 25, 2017
Justice and Safety for All
Bernie Sanders campaign website, 2019
Amy Klobuchar on Naloxone
Klobuchar signed onto 2017 letter to President Trump, asking him to follow the recommendations of his Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis and allow the government to negotiate lower prices for naloxone.
In December, 2018, Minnesota Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Human Services asking them to take action to reduce the price of naloxone. 15 additional senators signed on.
“Of course this drug saves lives. We all know that. What they are forgetting to say is how they are making a ton of money over how they classified this product. They basically found a loophole and exploited it and that is just what happened with EpiPen. So it is our job to close the loophole.”
Minnesota Senators push to lower cost of Naloxone to help fight opioid epidemic
Klobuchar.senate.gov, December 7, 2018 | Leah Mclean
From the 2018 letter to the HHS director, sent by 17 senators: “No police officer, no firefighter, no public health provider, and no person should be unable to save a life because of the high price,” the lawmakers wrote.“By bringing down the cost, we can get this life-saving drug in the hands of more people as called for by the Surgeon General. Doing so will save countless lives.”
Klobuchar, Smith, Senators Call on Administration to Take Immediate Action to Reduce Price of Naloxone, a Life-Saving Opioid Overdose Reversal Drug
Klobuchar Senate Website, April 30, 2018
Read More
Blumenthal, Murphy Call on President To Allow Government to Negotiate Lower Prices for Naloxone, a Life-Saving Opioid Overdose Reversal Drug
Office of Senator Richard Blumenthal, October 25, 2017
Klobuchar, Smith, Senators Call on Administration to Take Immediate Action to Reduce Price of Naloxone, a Life-Saving Opioid Overdose Reversal Drug
Klobuchar Senate Website, April 30, 2018
Kamala Harris on Naloxone
Harris signed onto a 2017 letter to President Trump, asking him to follow the recommendations of his Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis and allow the government to negotiate lower prices for naloxone.
In the July 2019 Democratic debate, Senator Harris stated that an anti-overdose syringe costs $4,000, out of the reach of many Americans who struggle with opioid addiction: “In America today… for those people who have overdosed from an opioid, there is a syringe that costs $4,000 that will save their life... It is immoral. It is untenable... and it must change with Medicare for all.” New York Times later published a fact-checking report of the debate, saying, “A product called Evzio, an auto-injector that contains the anti-overdose medicine naloxone, does cost about $4,000 for a two-dose kit. But at the end of last year, the manufacturer, Kaléo, said it would soon release a cheaper generic alternative that will cost $178. In addition, the price of a different, syringe form version of naloxone currently retails for about $80.”
“We must take action to increase access to get a wide range of services in our communities, including naloxone to prevent overdoses and other treatments to help people in the many stages of their recovery. I am a cosponsor of the Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act which would provide state and local governments with $100 billion in federal funding over the next ten years to deploy those kinds of resources. “
Kamala Harris Clarifies Her HIV Policy Positions
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
From a 2018 letter to United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, sent by 17 senators: “No police officer, no firefighter, no public health provider, and no person should be unable to save a life because of the high price,” the lawmakers wrote.“By bringing down the cost, we can get this life-saving drug in the hands of more people as called for by the Surgeon General. Doing so will save countless lives.”
Klobuchar, Smith, Senators Call on Administration to Take Immediate Action to Reduce Price of Naloxone, a Life-Saving Opioid Overdose Reversal Drug
Klobuchar Senate Website, April 30, 2018
Read More
Blumenthal, Murphy Call on President To Allow Government to Negotiate Lower Prices for Naloxone, a Life-Saving Opioid Overdose Reversal Drug
Office of Senator Richard Blumenthal, October 25, 2017
Klobuchar, Smith, Senators Call on Administration to Take Immediate Action to Reduce Price of Naloxone, a Life-Saving Opioid Overdose Reversal Drug
Klobuchar Senate Website, April 30, 2018
Debate Fact Check: What Were They Talking About, and What Was True?
The New York Times, July 31, 2019
Pete Buttigieg on Naloxone
Buttigieg plans to expand access to naloxone, but his plan does not recognize the overwhelming current reality of naloxone access in the U.S.: All evidence suggests that naloxone is only successful when put into the hands of people who use drugs - paramedics, bystanders, and first responders reverse only a small fraction of overdoses. While some states currently use federal funding to purchase naloxone, many states have restricted this naloxone purchased with federal funds. In short, the funding rarely makes its way to communities where it is needed.
“Expand take-home naloxone programs to all 50 states by 2024 and advance the implementation of harm reduction services to reduce overdose deaths and the spread of infectious diseases related to needle sharing. Harm reduction programs are a critical part of any effective response to the opioid and injection drug use crisis. They minimize the negative impact of drug use without encouraging it, while reducing other side effects of drug use. In particular, this means access to syringe service programs for people who inject drugs, that link them to treatment, and provides access to sterile syringes. These programs help prevent transmission of HIV, viral hepatitis, and other infectious diseases associated with needle sharing, and reduce overdoses by deploying medication such as naloxone that help reverse the effects of opioids.”
“To expand harm reduction services, we will Make naloxone, a drug that can be administered by any individual, broadly available in order to reverse overdoses. This includes expanding federal support for the purchase of naloxone by state and local health departments, assuring it is widely available in public spaces and workplaces in a similar way (and in conjunction with) first aid kits and Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), and encouraging co-prescribing of naloxone with opioids, either by individual physicians or direct dispensing by pharmacists.”
Joe Biden on Naloxone Access
Biden has not issued specific statements to this issue.
Get Involved
HIV Getting to Zero
HIV Getting to Zero
Many leaders around the world are calling for the elimination of new HIV infections, via the elimination of HIV transmission. From global health organizations to President Donald Trump, this goal has been uplifted by many and has become a priority for U.S. public health efforts. But “Getting to Zero” will take sustained effort, ongoing leadership, commitment of extensive resources, and the prioritization of effective, evidence-based interventions.
HIV continues to be a major public health crisis in the U.S. with almost 40,000 new cases each year, compounded by the syndemics of opioid use, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and tuberculosis (TB). While the more than 1.2 million people living with HIV in the U.S. reside in every congressional district, State, and territory, new cases of HIV and HIV/AIDS-related deaths are increasingly concentrated in communities of color, among members of the LGBTQ community, and in the Southern states. While communities across the U.S. have already begun taking concrete steps to end their state and local HIV epidemics, ending the HIV epidemic across the country will require increased Federal commitment and the concerted and coordinated efforts of community-based organizations, state and local governments, people living with and vulnerable to HIV, communities, clinicians, and service providers.
The United States now has the tools and ability to end the HIV epidemic at home. Over 250 organizations have called on the U.S. government to officially declare that it is our goal to end the HIV epidemic in the United States by 2025 and enact legislative and regulatory changes to achieve this goal.
We can change the trajectory of the U.S. HIV epidemic by setting and meeting the ambitious but achievable goal of reaching a 95/95/95 framework for HIV care (95% of people living with HIV are aware of their HIV status, 95% of diagnosed individuals are retained in care, and 95% of individuals on antiretroviral therapy virally suppressed), significantly increasing access to combination prevention for people who are HIV negative, and taking concrete action to ensure that no population or region is left behind.
But we must bring all available treatment and prevention tools to scale now to have the necessary impact on the epidemic. Failure to act swiftly at the required scale and across all affected communities and populations will result in more HIV transmissions, more HIV-related morbidity and mortality, continued health inequities, and increased health care costs.
Through the joint effort of community, all levels of government, and industry, we can harness the progress made over the last three decades to achieve a once unthinkable goal.
Tulsi Gabbard on HIV Getting to Zero
Gabbard has not yet completed a survey about HIV policy issued by AIDS United, nor issued specific statements to this issue.
Read More
2020 Presidential Candidate HIV Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019
Beto O’Rourke on HIV Getting to Zero
O'Rourke promises to ensure that health insurance and health care includes access to HIV prevention and treatment by fully enforcing the nondiscrimination protections in the ACA and by including protections in any new system of universal health insurance.
O'Rourke advocates ensuring that people in prison can get HIV treatment.
O'Rourke advocates for “Medicare for America” plan
O'Rourke Promises to stop price gouging by drug companies so that treatments like PreP are accessible.
O'Rourke will continue to support federal research funding, and the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and similar programs extending care to underserved populations.
Read More
2020 Presidential Candidate HIV Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019
Every 2020 Democratic Candidate’s Plan to End the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
Lifehacker, September 11, 2019 | Josh Ocampo
Beto O’Rourke Explains his Positions on HIV
HIV+ Magazine, September 9 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Watch: Beto talks syringe exchange at the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition
October 24, 2019
Beto’s Plan to Address Substance Use Disorders and the Opioid Epidemic
Medium | October 24, 2019 | Beto O’Rourke
Andrew Yang On HIV Getting to Zero
Yang has not issued specific statements to this issue.
Yang did not provide a response to the 2019 AIDS United HIV Policy Survey.
Read More
2020 Presidential Candidate HIV Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019
BREAKING: 2020 Presidential Candidates Tell Us Their Plans to End HIV
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Elizabeth Warren on HIV Getting to Zero
Warren supports Medicare for all.
Warren pledges to expand HIV research and treatment.
Warren would work to ensure comprehensive, inclusive reproductive and sexual health education and services.
Warren’s proposed Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act would allow the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to manufacture generic drugs when no company is manufacturing a drug, or when fewer than three companies are manufacturing the drug and the price of the drug has spiked, there is a shortage of the drug, or the drug is a WHO essential medicine that fewer than three companies are manufacturing with a price that prevents patients from getting it. In her first year as president, Warren would move to publicly manufacture PrEP in order to make it more affordable.
Warren would pressure prescription drug companies to lower HIV medication prices.
Warren would overturn HIV-status criminalization and discrimination laws and regulations.
Warren would pass the Repeal Existing Polices that Encourage and Allow Legal HIV Discrimination Act, which aims to identify federal state laws and regulations that discriminate against and criminalize people living with HIV.
Warren would work to increase funding for federal HIV/AIDS programs and research, such as the Ryan White Program, including the Minority HIV/AIDS initiative, and HIV/AIDS treatment and cure research at the National Institutes of Health.
“This is appalling [in reference to a news story titled “‘Rick Scott had us on lockdown.’: how Florida said no to $70m for HIV crisis”]. We must use every tool at our disposal to end the HIV epidemic. That means funding research, reducing transmission rates, and ensuring that those living with HIV get the care that they need.”
BREAKING: 2020 Presidential Candidates Tell Us Their Plans to End HIV
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
“There is no single answer to ending this epidemic — we must use every tool at our disposal. That includes Medicare for All, expanding HIV research and treatment, ensuring everyone has access to PrEP and HIV testing, holding drug companies accountable and lowering drug prices, ending the opioid crisis, ensuring that community health centers receive robust funding, and reinstating our position as global leader in public health. It also means expanding economic opportunities, tackling the housing crisis, banning private prisons and exploitative contractors, overturning HIV-status criminalization and discrimination laws and regulations, and ensuring comprehensive, inclusive reproductive and sexual health education and services.”
BREAKING: 2020 Presidential Candidates Tell Us Their Plans to End HIV
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
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BREAKING: 2020 Presidential Candidates Tell Us Their Plans to End HIV
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Bernie Sanders on HIV Getting to Zero
Sanders would create an HIV/AIDS Task Force composed of people with HIV/AIDS to develop recommendations on ending the HIV epidemic.
Sanders would end HIV-specific criminalization laws.
Sanders would create a "multi-billion dollar Prize Fund" for HIV/AIDS researchers. "Essentially, a company bringing a truly innovative HIV/AIDS treatment to market would receive a cash prize instead of patent protection; the treatment would then be placed in the public domain, allowing generic versions to come onto the market quickly."
“We must set a national goal of ending the HIV epidemic in the U.S. by the year 2025 so that HIV is no longer a public health threat to any community in the U.S. and that people with HIV are able to live long, healthy lives.”
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2020 Presidential Candidate HIV Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019
BREAKING: 2020 Presidential Candidates Tell Us Their Plans to End HIV
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Amy Klobuchar on HIV Getting to Zero
Klobuchar has not yet completed a survey about HIV policy issued by AIDS United
2020 Presidential Candidate HIV Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019
Klobuchar supports increasing competition and regulation of pharmaceutical companies in order to improve the availability of affordable HIV medications.
Klobuchar supported increased funding for Housing Opportunities for Persons with HIV/AIDS as Senator for Minnesota.
Klobuchar pledges that within the first 100 days of her presidency, she will allow for the safe importation of prescription drugs from other countries to decrease drug costs and would crack down on drug companies that pay makers of generic drugs to delay cheaper versions from getting into the market.
My solutions are these: first of all, make sure that [the] HIV community can get the drugs that they need, and that means the PrEP drug, and that means a whole bunch of other things to take on pharmaceutical companies to make drugs more affordable, including PrEP. The second thing is to make sure we keep in place the protections of the Affordable Care Act so we don’t kick people off their insurance for pre-existing conditions… The third thing that I would do is look to general social issues like homelessness, and things we need to do a much better job of… And finally, it’s the stigma issue.”
Klobuchar calls out big pharma to lower HIV drug costs
CNN, October 11, 2019 | Don Lemon
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BREAKING: 2020 Presidential Candidates Tell Us Their Plans to End HIV
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
2020 Presidential Candidate HIV Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019
Senator Amy Klobuchar Releases Plan of More Than 100 Actions for Her First 100 Days as President
Medium, June 18, 2019 | Amy for America
Kamala Harris on HIV Getting to Zero
Harris supports Medicare for All
Harris supports increasing federal funding for HIV research
Harris would push for the passage of the PrEP Access and Coverage Act, which she introduced in July 2019. This bill would require public and private health insurers to cover PrEP.
“Ensuring that PrEP, as well as the required tests and follow-up visits, are covered cost-free as part of all insurance plans (including Medicare and Medicaid) will help make sure everyone who could benefit from the medication is able to take it and help increase awareness about steps we can take to prevent further transmissions.”
BREAKING: 2020 Presidential Candidates Tell Us Their Plans to End HIV
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Read More
2020 Presidential Candidate HIV Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019
Every 2020 Democratic Candidate’s Plan to End the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
Lifehacker, September 11, 2019 | Josh Ocampo
BREAKING: 2020 Presidential Candidates Tell Us Their Plans to End HIV
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
S. 1926 Prep access and Coverage Act
Congress Website, June 2019 | Kamala Harris
Julián Castro on HIV Getting to Zero
Castro has not yet completed a 2019 survey issued by AIDS United regarding HIV policy.
2020 Presidential Candidate HIV Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019
“It’s #HIVPreventionDay. People of color are dealing with HIV at disproportionate rates. To #EndTheEpidemic we need to keep TaSP and PrEP affordable, improve sex ed & increase access to testing. And importantly, it’s time to end the stigma around HIV+ status. #UequalsU”
Julian Castro
Twitter, July 17, 2019
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2020 Presidential Candidate HIV Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019
BREAKING: 2020 Presidential Candidates Tell Us Their Plans to End HIV
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Pete Buttigieg on HIV Getting to Zero
Buttigieg would "revitalize" the Office of National AIDS Policy, which works to reduce and spread awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic across the U.S. (Since January 2017, President Trump has failed to appoint a new director of ONAP after its previous director, Amy Lansky, left that month. Several other staff members have resigned.
Buttigieg does not support universal health care, and says he instead, would "strengthen the Affordable Care Act."
Buttigieg would re-establish the White House Office of National AIDS Policy.
Buttigieg would expand access to HIV testing in clinical and non-clinical settings and would fully fund the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program.
Buttigieg would pursue aggressive price negotiations against any pharmaceutical companies refusing to sell PrEP at an affordable rate. If this failed, he would “consider” exercising eminent domain on PrEP-related patents.
Buttigieg would guarantee funding to expand access to condoms and HIV prevention programs.
Buttigieg would guarantee funding to expand access to condoms and HIV prevention programs.
Buttigieg would expand funding for programs like PEPFAR and the Global Fund which prioritize vulnerable populations in its effort to prevent HIV/AIDS transmission.
Buttigieg’s ONAP strategy would restore civil rights protections for those with HIV in health care settings, "address the stigma" for those who face challenges in obtaining preventative and general care for HIV, and provide access to PrEP for those determined "at risk" by ensuring that all costs are covered by insurance plans. Alternatively, if this fails, his administration would "take over" drug company patents and lower prices.
Buttiegieg promises to “end the HIV/AIDS epidemic” by 2030.
Buttigieg, in his first six months in office, would update the National HIV/AIDS strategy to ensure that undetectable means untransmittable and would ensure universal access to PrEP.
Buttigieg promises to ensure access to PrEP for everyone who needs it through his Medicare for All Who Want It plan. He would require all insurance plans to cover PrEP and related screening and monitoring services without cost sharing and would provide federal funding to ensure access to PrEP drugs and related services for those who are un- or underinsured.
Buttigeig would commit to restoring funding for domestic HIV/AIDS research.
Buttigieg would decriminalize HIV transmission, and would restore the Affordable Care Act’s civil rights protections to everyone at risk for HIV.
Buttigieg would decriminalize HIV transmission, and would restore the Affordable Care Act’s civil rights protections to everyone at risk for HIV.
“We cannot think about ending the AIDS epidemic without addressing directly the substance use disorder (SUD) epidemic in the United States. While opioids have fueled the immediate epidemic of overdose deaths and new HIV infections as a result of needle sharing, we should treat this as a SUD epidemic — whether through opioids, fentanyl or methamphetamine. The HIV outbreak in Scott County, IN was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of communities at risk. I saw at close range the price that is paid by not having comprehensive harm reduction and SUD treatment services.”
2020 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019 | Pete Buttigieg
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Every 2020 Democratic Candidate’s Plan to End the HIV/AIDS Epidemic
Lifehacker, September 11, 2019
Josh Ocampo
Four Things an HIV Policy Survey Reveals About 2020 Candidates’ Harm Reduction Positions
Filter, September 10, 2019
2020 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire
AIDS United | Pete Buttigieg
Becoming Whole: A New Era for LGBTQ+ Americans
Pete Buttigieg, 2019
Cory Booker on HIV Getting to Zero
Booker pledges to “beat the [HIV] epidemic.”
Booker would remove barriers to accessing PrEP.
Booker pledges to halt all administration attacks on the Affordable Care Act and on Medicaid.
Booker plans to protect and fully implement programs that are important for those living with HIV and for preventing HIV, including the Ryan White AIDS program and the 340B program.
Booker would increase funding for HIV care and prevention.
Booker would work to pass comprehensive sex education legislation.
Booker promises HIV care will benefit by improved access to health coverage through his Medicare for All plan.
Booker would immediately fill vacancies on the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and seek advice and recommendations from the council on strategies for prevention, treatment, and research for HIV. When appointing members of the council, he pledges to seek leaders who would center the needs of communities that are disproportionately impacted by HIV, including LGBTQ+ communities and communities of color.
“We need to continue supporting evidence-based programs that we know work, which is why I support increasing our investments into the Ryan White Program and for networks of people living with HIV that provide peer support and combat stigma.”
Cory Booker Explains His HIV Policy Ideas
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
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Corey Booker Explains His HIV Policy Ideas
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
2020 Presidential Candidate HIV Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019
Get Involved
Hepatitis C Treatment Access
Hepatitis C Treatment Access
Hepatitis C is a viral infection that can cause harm to the liver over many years. There is no vaccine for hepatitis C (HCV), and the virus is typically transmitted via blood transfusions (before 1992) or IV drug use. Treatment for HCV has historically been ineffective, complex, and accompanied by painful side effects. However, in 2014 the FDA approved a new set of medications (DAAs) that offer a highly effective cure (without significant side effects) in approximately 8-12 weeks via a daily pill. While these medications previously cost ~$100,000 per course of treatment, the cost of the drugs have decreased rapidly, now carrying a typical sticker price of just under $20,000. Treating patients living with HCV is of significant public health importance, as patients who are left untreated may develop liver cancer, cirrhosis, and require a liver transplant. Yet due to the perceived high cost, many health care payors (particularly Medicaid) across the country have created barriers to accessing the treatment. For example, in Iowa a patient must document six months of sobriety from alcohol and drugs, as well as stage three or four liver damage (out of four stages), in order to receive the medication. These medications do not reverse liver damage, thus it is important to treat patients for HCV immediately after diagnosis. Furthermore, active drug users are the most likely to transmit the virus.
By treating all people, regardless of sobriety, we can significantly reduce the rate of transmission and of new cases. While some have argued that people who use drugs do not care about their health enough to take a medication as prescribed, multiple studies have documented that people engaged in chaotic substance use are able to complete treatment easily.
HCV is the leading infectious disease killer in the United States, and kills more people each year than the next 60 leading infectious diseases, combined. There are millions of people in the U.S. living with hepatitis C, but without federal action to ensure evidence-based, equitable, and unlimited treatment access, countless lives will be lost and billions of dollars generated in health care cost.
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Iowa Department of Public Health Hepatitis Action Plan, 2017 – 2021
Hepatitis C: The State of Medicaid Access; Center for HIV Law and Policy, Harvard University
A National Strategy for the Elimination of Hepatitis B & C; Institute of Medicine
2019 Viral Hepatitis Progress Report; National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable
Tulsi Gabbard on Hepatitis C Treatment Access
Gabbard has not issued specific statements to this issue.
In 2016, while serving as a House Representative for Hawai’i, Gabbard voted in favor of the Military Construction and Veteran Affairs funding bill for Fiscal Year 2017, which included $850 million for health care needs of veterans, including treatment of hepatitis C.
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Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Votes for VA Funding and $200 million for Hawai’i Military Construction
May 19, 2016 | Tulsi Gabbard House website
Beto O’Rourke on Hepatitis C Treatment Access
While visiting the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition, O'Rourke expressed support for policies and programs that provide people with access to hepatitis C treatment without requirement for sobriety or advance-stage disease.
O’Rourke did not provide comment on Hepatitis C treatment when asked directly about it by HIV+ Magazine, Sept 9, 2019.
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Beto O’Rourke Explains His Positions on HIV
HIV+ Magazine | September 9 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Watch: Beto talks HIV at the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition
October 24, 2019
Beto’s Plan to Address Substance Use Disorders and the Opioid Epidemic
Medium | October 24, 2019 | Beto O’Rourke
Andrew Yang On Hepatitis C Treatment Access
Yang has not issued specific statements to this issue
Elizabeth Warren on Hepatitis C Treatment Access
Warren supports Medicare for all.
Warren would pressure prescription drug companies to lower medication prices.
Warren would work to ensure comprehensive, inclusive reproductive and sexual health education and services.
Warren pledges to expand HIV research and treatment.
Warren would overturn HIV-status crminalization and discrimination laws and regulations.
Read More
Battle of 1498
Rep. Khana Website, March 15, 2018 | Alexander Zaitchik
2020 Presidential Candidate HIV Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019
Bernie Sanders on Hepatitis C Treatment Access
Sanders supports Medicare for all.
In 2015, Senator Sanders wrote a letter to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs urging him to use federal law to to break the patents on hepatitis C drugs to authorize third parties to manufacture or import them for government use. This was after the VA stopped enrolling new HCV patients due to lack of funds for the price the medication was being marketed at.
Sanders has discussed using a statute in U.S. patent law, which allows the government to override drug patents and license the production of cheap generics if it serves the public interest, to lower costs of new hepatitis C treatments.
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The Battle of 1498
AlterNet, March 14, 2018 | Alexander Zaitchik
Letter to Secretary Robert A. McDonald
Sanders senate website, May 12, 2015
Amy Klobuchar on Hepatitis C Treatment Access
The Senate Finance Committee released a report in 2015 which revealed that the hepatitis C drug ‘Solvadi’ was being priced and marketed to maximize profits for a pharmaceutical company, and was at the expense of consumers. In response to this report, Klobuchar called on Congress to act immediately to pass legislation to lower prescription drug prices for consumers.
“It is as clear as ever: we have an urgent problem with the cost of prescription drugs in our country. This report presents yet another example in which a drug manufacturer’s first priority is how much money it can squeeze from consumers with no regard for what it means for the Americans who need its treatment. This is an alarming trend that we cannot allow to continue. We need to pass legislation to protect consumers from the unjustified inflation of prescription drug prices.”
In Light of New Report on Profit-Driven Prescription Drug Pricing, Klobuchar Continues Call for Congress to Immediately Pass Her Legislation to Lower Drug Prices for Consumers
Amy Klobuchar senate website, December 1, 2015
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In Light of New Report on Profit-Driven Prescription Drug Pricing, Klobuchar Continues Call for Congress to Immediately Pass Her Legislation to Lower Drug Prices for Consumers
Amy Klobuchar senate website, December 1, 2015
Kamala Harris on Hepatitis C Treatment Access
Harris has not issued specific statements to this issue.
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Kamala Harris releases ‘Medicare for all’ plan with a role for private insurers
NPR, July 19, 2019 | Danielle Kurtzleben
Julián Castro on Hepatitis C Treatment Access
Castro has not issued specific statements to this issue.
Pete Buttigieg on Hepatitis C Treatment Access
Buttegieg has not issued specific statements on this issue beyond the quoted comments from the 2019 AIDS United questionnaire, which support ensuring hepatitis C treatment through broader adoption of Medicaid expansion.
“Access to comprehensive health care services that includes … treatment for hepatitis C by assuring broader adoption of Medicaid expansion and through existing networks of safety-net providers.”
2020 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019 | Pete Buttigieg
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2020 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire
AIDS United, 2019 | Pete Buttigieg
Cory Booker on Hepatitis C Treatment Access
Booker has not issued specific statements to this issue.
Get Involved
Voting Rights Restoration
Voting Rights Restoration
Following the 2016 election, the voting rights remains as critical as ever. Politicians across the country continue to engage in voter suppression, efforts that include additional obstacles to registration, cutbacks on early voting, and strict voter identification requirements. Voting access is determined by a person’s felon status / past felony charges, availability of same-day and online voter registration; access to mail-in and/or early voting; requirement for government identification to vote; and other voter suppression tactics that may prohibit people from entering a polling place. Historically, people who use drugs who have been charged with and convicted of a felony have been prohibited from voting.
Iowa is one of only two remaining states that restricts voting rights for life for anyone convicted of a felony – current efforts are underway to amend the Iowa constitution in order to repeal this restriction.
The Executive branch has many opportunities to expand and ensure access to voting for people who use drugs.
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Tulsi Gabbard on Voting Rights Restoration
A spokeswoman for Gabbard stated that felons should not be able to vote while under the control of law enforcement, including while on parole, because their votes could be “unduly influenced by those authorities.”
Gabbard has not personally issues specific statements to this issue.
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2020 Candidates Are Very Hesitant About Letting Prisoners Vote
Sam Levine and Igo Bobic, April 10, 2019 | HuffPost
Beto O’Rourke on Voting Rights Restoration
O'Rourke supports voting rights for people behind bars for non-violent offenses, saying that doing so will help mend racial disparities in voter turnout.
“When you look at the population in prisons today, it is disproportionately comprised of people of color; far too many there for nonviolent drug crimes. I want to make sure that time spent behind bars does not entail a stripping of your civic and constitutional rights. I would think especially for nonviolent offenders that we rethink removing the right to vote, and allow everyone, or as many as possible, to participate in our democracy.”
O’Rourke Says He Supports Voting Rights for Nonviolent Felons.
The Hill, April 24, 2019 | Tal Axelrod
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Which 2020 candidates think incarcerated felons should be able to vote?
CBS News, June 14 2019 | Alexandra Chaidez
O’Rourke Says He Supports Voting Rights for Nonviolent Felons.
The Hill, April 24, 2019 | Tal Axelrod
2020 Democrats Confronting Debate Over Letting Felons Vote
AP News, April 24, 2019 | Nicholas Riccardi
Andrew Yang On Voting Rights Restoration
Yang would support individual state efforts to pass legislation restoring voting rights to individuals convicted of felonies who are currently denied their right to vote.
Yang would encourage states to minimize the list of felonies that result in automatic loss of voting rights.
Yang would prioritize all initiatives to expand and restore voting rights in the US to the previously incarcerated.
“If you’ve paid your debt to society, you ought to be able to vote. This is particularly true given the hodgepodge of different treatment in different states. Voters are less likely to reoffend, which is only one reason we should be pushing for it.”
Restoration of Voting Rights
Andrew Yang campaign website, 2019
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Restoration of Voting Rights
Andrew Yang campaign website, 2019
Elizabeth Warren on Voting Rights Restoration
Warren supports restoration of voting rights for felons after they have completed their sentence. She does not support restoring voting rights to individuals while they are still incarcerated, but expresses a willingness to reconsider this position.
“Once someone pays their debt to society, they’re out there expected to pay taxes, expected to abide by the law, they’re expected to support themselves and their families,” she said. “I think that means they’ve got a right to vote.” “While they’re incarcerated, I think that’s something we can have more conversation about.”
Elizabeth Warren won’t say if she supports voting rights for incarcerated felons
Huffington Post, March 30, 2019 | Sam Levine and Sara Boboltz
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Elizabeth Warren won’t say if she supports voting rights for incarcerated felons
Huffington Post, March 30, 2019 | Sam Levine and Sara Boboltz
Kamala Harris clarifies response on whether prisoners should be allowed to vote
SFGate, May 24, 2019 | Dianne de Guzman
Bernie Sanders on Voting Rights Restoration
Sanders advocates for both the restoration of voting rights for felons, and the ability for individuals to vote while incarcerated. Sanders is, so far, the only presidential candidate to explicitly support enfranchisement for incarcerated individuals.
“You’re paying a price, you committed a crime, you’re in jail. That’s bad. But you’re still living in American society and you have a right to vote. I believe in that.”
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Justice and Safety for All
Bernie Sanders campaign website, 2019
Amy Klobuchar on Voting Rights Restoration
Klobuchar supports restoring voting rights to felons after release from prison.
Klobuchar reported she supported “what they did in Florida, which is when [felons] get out they get to vote.”
Candidates Are Really Hesitant About Allowing Prisoners To Vote
Huffpost.com, April 10, 2019 | Sam Levine and Igor Bobic
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Candidates Are Really Hesitant About Allowing Prisoners To Vote
Huffpost.com, April 10, 2019 | Sam Levine and Igor Bobic
Kamala Harris on Voting Rights Restoration
Harris supports restoring voting rights to felons after their time has been served. She opposes voting rights for imprisoned felons, but has expressed willingness to reconsider this position. As California Attorney General in 2016, Harris supported a state law to restore voting rights to individuals serving time under community supervision. The bill would also expand voting rights to those serving a felony sentence in county jail.
“We right now have got a lot of work to do with the people in our country who have served their time and have been prohibited from voting… Currently in our country there are 6 million people who have served their time and are still prohibited from voting, and that has been an area of focus for me for quite some time, and we’ve got to address that and address that immediately, and so that is one of my first areas of focus and concern… Do I think that people who commit murder, people who are terrorists, should be deprived of their rights? Yeah, I do. I’m a prosecutor, I believe that in terms of, there has to be serious consequence for the most extreme types of crimes.”
Harris on whether felons should vote in prison: ‘There has to be serious consequences’ for extreme crimes
CNN.com, April 23, 2019 | Kate Sullivan
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Harris on whether felons should vote in prison: ‘There has to be serious consequences’ for extreme crimes
CNN.com, April 23, 2019 | Kate Sullivan
Which 2020 candidates think incarcerated felons should be able to vote?
CBS News, June 14 2019 | Alexandra Chaidez
Attorney General Kamala D. Harris Endorses Legislation to Expand Voting Rights
Office of Attorney General Kamala D. Harris, June 20, 2016
Julián Castro on Voting Rights Restoration
Castro supports automatic restoration of voting rights for felons who have served their sentences.
“I agree with those who have said that incarceration should not necessarily strip somebody of the right to vote. There’s a history in this country, especially in the SOuth, of African Americans being disenfranchised because they were over-incarcerated and that we need to change that… Where I would draw the line is with violent felons.”
Bernie Sanders’ call for all prisoners to be able to vote sets him apart from almost every other 2020 Democrat
Business Insider, April 30, 2019 | John Haltiwanger
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Bernie Sanders’ call for all prisoners to be able to vote sets him apart from almost every other 2020 Democrat
Business Insider, April 30, 2019 | John Haltiwanger
The First Chance Plan
Julian Castro campaign website, 2019
Pete Buttigieg on Voting Rights Restoration
Buttigieg supports the restoration of voting rights for felons upon release from prison.
Buttigieg does not believe prisoners should have the right to vote while incarcerated.
“I do believe that…when you have served your sentence, then part of being restored to society is that you are part of the political life of this nation again. And one of the things that needs to be restored is your right to vote. As you know, some states and communities do it, some don’t. I think we’d be a better country if everybody did it. Frankly, I think the motivations for preventing that kind of re-enfranchisement, in some cases, have to do with one side of the aisle noticing that they politically benefit from that. And that’s got some racial layers too.”
Presidential Town Hall with Mayor Pete Buttigieg
CNN, April 22, 2019 | Anderson Cooper
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Pete Buttigieg Says Incarcerated People Shouldn’t Get to Vote
Gq.com, April 23, 2019 | Luke Darry
Cory Booker on Voting Rights Restoration
Booker supports enfranchising people with felony records.
Booker believes that people in prison for "serious felonies" surrender the right to vote while in prison, but those serving time for nonviolent drug offenses should be allowed to vote while they're in prison, primarily because he does not believe these offenders should be in prison in the first place.
“Where I begin all of this isn’t the fight to get people in prison their voting rights. It’s to get them out of prison. That’s my fight. We should have 50 percent reductions in incarceration, and that would still not be in line with the rest of the industrialized nations that do not incarcerate as many people…. Let’s start with the larger fight. Why are they going to prison in the first place for nonviolent drug offenses? Literally, now, two of the last three presidents have admitted to felony drug use, but they get to be president and low-income people, drug-addicted people, people with mental illness, they have to go to prison and not just lose their voting rights, but lose their absolute liberty.”
Cory Booker Wants To Allow Some Prisoners To Vote
Huffington Post, May 30, 2019 | Kevin Robillard
“You know, these felony disenfranchise laws – if you go back to some of the state legislative debates that were happening after Reconstruction, they were designed to stop African-Americans from voting. These have racist roots to these laws. And it gets to a point now where you can see the fruit of that poison tree – is that you have some counties in America where 1 out of 4 African-Americans can’t vote. And remember; the overwhelming number of charges are for nonviolent drug offenses. So here, you’ve served your time, and now you’re going to have 10, 20, 40, 50, 60 years more as an adult. And you’re told that your citizen rights have been stripped from you? This is a way, I think, that poor people especially – low-income people are being stripped of their democratic power.”
Sen. Booker To Propose Next Steps In Criminal Justice Overhaul
NPR, March 7, 2019 | Steve Inskeep
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Cory Booker Wants To Allow Some Prisoners To Vote
Huffington Post, May 30, 2019 | Kevin Robillard
Cory Booker is running for president in 2020. Here’s everything we know about the candidate and how he stacks up against the competition.
Business Insider, September 13, 2019 | John Haltiwanger and Joseph Zeballos-Roig
Which 2020 candidates think incarcerated felons should be able to vote?
CBS News, June 14 2019 | Alexandra Chaidez
Get Involved
Drug Decriminalization
Drug Decriminalization
Each year, there are more than 1.6 million drug arrests in the United States. More than 85% of these arrests are for possession only, and many more are for minor selling and distribution violations. Twenty-two states have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Other jurisdictions are experimenting with de facto decriminalization through Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) programs. LEAD directs people to drug treatment or other supportive services instead of arresting and booking them for certain drug law violations, including possession and low-level sales. Drug decriminalization (of all drugs, not just marijuana) eliminates criminal penalties for drug use and possession; possession of equipment used to introduce drugs into the human body (such as syringes); and low-level drug sales.
There are a number of benefits to drug decriminalization, including fiscal savings as the result of reducing prison and jail costs, as well as prison and jail population sizes; and law enforcement resources that are increasingly available to address violent crime and other community concerns.
Decriminalization also prioritizes health and safety over punishment for people who use drugs. For those who know that “we cannot arrest our way out of this problem (drug use),” drug decriminalization is the regulatory process through which substance use is recognized as a health care issue, rather than a criminal one.
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Tulsi Gabbard on Drug Decriminalization
Gabbard introduced the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2019, which would limit the application of Federal laws to the distribution and consumption of marijuana and would remove marijuana from the list of Schedule l substances under the Controlled Substances Act.
Gabbard cosponsored the VA Medical Cannabis Research Act of 2019 to direct the Secretary of Veteran Affairs to carry out a clinical trial of the effects of cannabis on certain health outcomes of adults with chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Gabbard co-introduced the Opioid Crisis Accountability Act of 2019, which would prohibit the illegal marketing and distribution of opioids, would create criminal liability for top company executives, would penalize drug manufacturers who illegally advertise, market, or distribute an opioid product, and would require drug makers to reimburse the country for the negative economic impact of their drugs.
Gabbard cosponsored the Marijuana Justice Act of 2019, which would economically punish states that do not legalize cannabis and continue to incarcerate or arrest people for cannabis-related offenses.
Gabbard would remove marijuana-related convictions from “otherwise law-abiding Americans.”
In 2017, Gabbard signed onto a letter to Eric Hargan, Acting Secretary at the time for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services urging the department to allow research of medical marijuana as a pain management alternative to opioids.
When asked by an audience member at a 2019 CNN Town Hall event if Gabbard would decriminalize all drugs, Gabbard responded by saying that after with meeting with a group of men living in a substance use recovery facility in New Hampshire, she was “impressed by their strength and their resilience,” that we need to end the failed war on drugs, that she feels it is important to identify the root causes of addiction, and discussed her introduction of the Ending the Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2019. CNN host ____ then asked for further detail saying, “So Congresswoman, you’re talking a lot about marijuana, but where do you draw the line on decriminalization, because one of the questions was about all drugs. What do you think about that?” Gabbard replied, “I think that the heart of her question was really recognizing that this is about addiction, not criminalization. Our failed war on drugs has turned everyday Americans who are struggling with substance abuse and addiction and turned them into criminals.” Gabbard did not provide an answer regarding the legalization of all substances.
“As the opioid epidemic continues to ravage communities across the country, we must pursue every available path to prevent, treat, and ultimately end America’s reliance on these highly addictive drugs… With the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act, we can begin to rectify decades of misguided law enforcement policy and focus on solutions. We can work for people like veterans and healthcare advocates instead of pharmaceutical lobbyists who will continue to push dangerous and addictive painkillers even amidst an opioid epidemic. Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition is the best way forward for our criminal justice and healthcare systems.”
“We must end this failed war on drugs. I introduced bipartisan legislation that would end the federal prohibition on marijuana. This will have a great impact on the opioid crisis. In states where marijuana is legalized, we have seen a drop in opioid addiction, and a drop in opioid-related deaths. This will have an impact on our economy in so many different ways, as well as taking a huge bite out of our broken criminal justice system, where far too many nonviolent drug offenders are wasting away.”
“The fact that marijuana’s still a Schedule I drug is unacceptable in the harm that it is causing to the people of our country and to taxpayers as well. The impact this has on individuals, potentially leading to criminal records that impact them, their families, their ability to get a job, housing, financial aid for college–the impacts of this are great. That’s not to speak of the impact on states, small businesses and banks in those states that have legalized some level of marijuana.”
“I believe firmly in every person’s freedom to make their own choices, and that people should not be thrown in jail and incarcerated or made into criminals for choosing to smoke marijuana whether it be for medicinal and non-medicinal purposes.”
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CNN Presidential Town Hall with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
March 10, 2019 | CNN
End the failed war on drugs
Tulsi Gabbard campaign website, 2019
H.R.1588 – Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2019
March 7, 2019 | U.S. Congress website
Letter to Acting Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services
Eric D. Hargan | December 5, 2017
Beto O’Rourke on Drug Decriminalization
O’Rourke is a long-time advocate of ending federal prohibition on marijuana. In his 2018 Senate race against Ted Cruz, O’Rourke was endorsed by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
O'Rourke authored the book, Dealing Death and Drugs: The Big Business of Dope in the U.S. and Mexico: An Argument for Ending the Prohibition of Marijuana. in 2011.
O'Rourke proposes federal legalization of marijuana, creation of a regulated market, and taxing the marijuana industry to fund a monthly stipend to repay people who served prison time on nonviolent marijuana charges. His goal is to see those who were harmed by the strict “war on drugs” policies of the past now benefiting from money made in the marijuana business. This is the first plan to suggest direct payments to people who have been imprisoned on cannabis charges.
O'Rourke voiced support for the decriminalization of all drugs while discussing his plans to address the opioid overdose crisis on October 24, 2019, but did not name specific narcotics which he believed should be subject to alternative regulatory models than the status quo. O’Rourke calls heroin and meth, “a tougher set of issues,” and notes that trafficking and selling of these substances should remain under the purview of the justice system.
O'Rourke joins Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.) and Kamala D. Harris (Calif.) in calling for those convicted of marijuana possession to have their criminal records expunged.
O'Rourke sponsored a resolution as an El Paso city councilor in 2009, which called on Congress to have an "honest, open national debate on ending the prohibition” of marijuana."
O’Rourke’s plan would no longer allow marijuana charges to be considered grounds for denying citizenship or deporting immigrants.
O’Rourke also supports increased efforts to target the supply chain of fentanyl entering the U.S., intending to focus increased efforts on preventing the spread of the drug into the U.S. via the postal service and the DEA. O’Rourke says he will tighten government regulation and oversight of pharmaceutical companies and expand the Drug Enforcement Administration’s ability to hold drug distributors accountable for suspicious shipments. His plan would also look to curb the flow of illicit fentanyl into the U.S. by requiring China to increase its monitoring of the substance as a condition for trade negotiations and bilateral discussions.
“These are not criminal justice issues that warrant punishment. Beto understands that these are chronic brain diseases with the potential for both recovery and relapse.”
“We need to decriminalize the possession and use of drugs in this country. It is fundamental that we no longer pursue this as a criminal justice problem.”
“The focus on the war on drugs going on 50 years in this country not only has deprived other federal agencies and departments… it’s also militarized our communities” and thus solutions must shift funding away from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
“We need to not only end the prohibition on marijuana, but also repair the damage done to the communities of color disproportionately locked up in our criminal justice system or locked out of opportunity because of the War on Drugs,” O’Rourke said in a press release. “These inequalities have compounded for decades, as predominantly white communities have been given the vast majority of lucrative business opportunities, while communities of color still face over-policing and criminalization. It’s our responsibility to begin to remedy the injustices of the past and help the people and communities most impacted by this misguided war.”
O’Rourke Unveils a Plan to Legalize Marijuana, End War on Drugs
The Hill, September 19 2019
Chris Mills Rodrigo
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Beto O’Rourke Calls for Drug Decriminalization and Safe Injection Sites in New Plan
Marijuana Moment, October 24, 2019 | Kyle Jaeger
Beto O’Rourke Calls for Federal Legalization of Marijuana, Government Stipends for Ex-offenders.
The Washington Post, September 19, 2019 | Colby Itkowitz
Marijuana Legalization, war on drugs, emerge as issues in race between Beto O’Rourke and Ted Cruz
The Texas Tribune, May 2, 2018
End the War on Drugs/End the War on People
Beto O’Rourke campaign website
Watch: Beto talks drug policy reform at the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition
October 24, 2019
O’Rourke Unveils Plan to Combat Opioid Epidemic
The Hill, October 24, 2019
Tax Axelrod
Beto O’Rourke Unveils Plan to Stem Opioid Abuse
CBS News, October 24, 2019
Timothy Perry
Andrew Yang On Drug Decriminalization
Yang would decriminalize, at the federal level, small quantities of opioid use and possession (anything under 5-10 days of personal use).
Yang would direct the FDA to regulate pharmaceutical company marketing tactics as much as they regulate the release of new drugs.
Yang would make it much harder to prescribe opioids, mandating that the FDA require doctors to complete special training before being allowed to prescribe opioids, and only hospitals would be allowed to prescribe them, not doctors' offices and practices.
Yang would work with the DEA to enforce a much stricter limit on the number of opioid-based medications that can be produced in any given year and instruct manufacturers to report drugs prescribed in each community so as to monitor excess supply and probable abuse.
“I didn’t always believe that decriminalizing opioids was a good way to tackle the opioid crisis in our country. Then I dug into the data, and realized it is the single best way to facilitate recovery by prescribing treatment, not jail to struggling users.”
Andrew Yang | Twitter, July 19, 2019
Read More
Decriminalize Opioids
Andrew Yang campaign website, 2019
2020 Candidate Andrew Yang Tweets Support for Safe Consumption Spaces
Filter, August 8, 2019 | Alexander Lekhtman
Elizabeth Warren on Drug Decriminalization
Warren supports Marijuana legalization. Warren declined to publicly state a position when Massachusetts considered whether to legalize weed in 2016, but now says she voted in favor of the ballot measure and supports nationwide legalization. Warren has cited the racial disparities in marijuana arrests as a big reason to legalize the substance.
Warren is a lead sponsor of the proposed Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act, which would recognize the legalization of cannabis, including the existing U.S. state laws that have already legalized.
Warren is a co-sponsor of the Marijuana Justice Act, which would economically punish states that do not legalize cannabis and continue to incarcerate or arrest people for cannabis-related offenses.
“For four decades, we’ve subscribed to a “War on Drugs” theory of crime, which has criminalized addiction, ripped apart families — and largely failed to curb drug use. It starts with legalizing marijuana and erasing past convictions, and then eliminating the remaining disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing. And rather than incarcerating individuals with substance abuse disorders, we should expand options that divert them into programs that provide real treatment.”
Ending private prisons and exploitation for profit
Medium, June 21, 2019 | Elizabeth Warren
Read More
Presidential Candidates, the Election, and Drug Policy
Psychologytoday.com, May 7, 2019 | Adi Jaffe, Ph.D
Exclusive: Cory Booker says weed Legalization must include justice for victims of war on drugs
Vice.com, April 9, 2019 | Matt Lasko
Rethinking public safety to reduce mass incarceration and strengthen communities
Medium.com, August 20, 2019 | Elizabeth Warren
Bernie Sanders on Drug Decriminalization
Sanders would sign an executive order within the first 100 days of office, authorizing the attorney general to declassify marijuana as a Schedule I drug.
In 1972, Sanders wrote in a letter to a local Vermont newspaper, that he supported abolishing "all laws dealing with abortion, drugs, sexual behavior (adultery, homosexuality, etc.)" while running for Governor of Vermont.
Sanders supported the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2014, which would have adjusted federal mandatory sentencing guidelines for a number of crimes in an effort to reduce the size of the current U.S. prison population. Namely, it would have reduced mandatory sentences for drug offenses, would have expanded the ability of non-violent offenders to reduce their sentences, and would have enabled federal prisoners to seek retroactive sentence adjustment under the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010.
Sanders would legalize marijuana and vacate and expunge past marijuana convictions.
Sanders co-sponsored the 2019 Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act, which would federally decriminalize cannabis.
Sanders sponsored the Opioid Crisis Accountability Act in 2018, which aims to establish criminal penalties for drug companies who negligently omit information about the risk of addiction in advertising, and limits the quantity of opioids that are delivered to each state.
Sanders filed the first bill in the Senate in 2015 to end cannabis prohibition.
Sanders has called the War on Drugs, "a costly, destructive, and ineffective" policy
Sanders co-sponsored the 2017 Marijuana Justice Act, which aimed to deschedule marijuana as a Schedule I drug.
Sanders promises to end the War on Drugs.
Sanders would institute a full review of the current sentencing guidelines and end the sentencing disparity between crack and cocaine.
Sanders co-sponsored the States' Rights to Medical Marijana Act of 2001, which would have turned marijuana into a Schedule ll substance.
“What I can tell you is this: We have far, far, far too many people in jail for nonviolent crimes, and I think in many ways, the war against drugs has not been successful.”
“Once you’re into heroin, it’s either jail or death”
“The fact that marijuana is classified next to cocaine or heroin under federal law is absolutely ridiculous. We need to legalize marijuana in this country and furthermore, expunge any criminal records pertaining to the use of marijuana.”
Read More
Presidential Candidates, the Election, and Drug Policy
Psychology Today, May 7, 2019 | Adi Jaffe, Ph.D
Bernie Sanders was decades ahead of the country on gay rights and ending the war on drugs
Vox | July 7, 2015 | German Lopez
Amy Klobuchar on Drug Decriminalization
Klobuchar would require prescribers to use the prescription drug monitoring program.
Klobuchar would create a position in the White House that exists outside of the Department of Justice to advise the president on criminal justice reform issues.
Klobuchar would create a bipartisan clemency advisory board that would include victim advocates and prison and sentencing reform advocates to advise the president.
Klobuchar is a co-sponsor of the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act, which would amend the Controlled Substance Act to exempt states that have legalized cannabis from federal intervention.
Klobuchar is one of eight senators who signed a letter addressed to then Attorney General Jeff Sessions, demanding answers about the status of applications to become federally authorized marijuana manufacturers for research purposes.
When data showed that a local drug court in Hennepin County was sentencing many drug offenders to probation instead of prison, Klobuchar called the results “unacceptable,” adding, “We believe that they should serve a lengthier sentence instead of going to the workhouse and that they should be behind bars.” Klobuchar was a prosecutor in Hennepin County at the time.
Prosecutors criticize Drug Court
Star Tribune, July 13, 2006
Klobuchar supports incentives for state governments to enact ignition interlock laws for those convicted of drunk driving. These laws often also impact individuals convicted of substance use related charges, including those that do not involve a driving incident.
Klobuchar is a co-sponsor of the First Step Act, to reduce federal sentences for non-violent drug offenders.
Klobuchar signed on to measures designed to expand research into marijuana by increasing the number of facilities permitted to cultivate cannabis for research purposes and require relevant federal agencies to reassess whether cannabidiol (CBD) should remain a controlled substance. Another proposal she cosponsored would remove CBD and “CBD-rich plants” from the definition of marijuana under federal law.
Klobuchar has not signed onto the far-reaching Marijuana Justice Act that Sen. Cory Booker filed to deschedule cannabis and withhold funding from states with discriminatory enforcement.
Her Senate website contains just one mention of marijuana policy: “Finally, I have opposed efforts to roll back the Obama Administration policy that the federal government would not interfere with state laws legalizing marijuana, and I cosponsored the STATES Act, bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Gardner to protect the ability of states to regulate marijuana,” she said. “I have also cosponsored legislation to make it easier for researchers to study the medical effectiveness and safety of marijuana and cannabidiol, which is used to treat conditions such as epilepsy.”
“I support the legalization of marijuana and believe that states should have the right to determine the best approach to marijuana within their borders.”
Amy Klobuchar says she supports legalizing marijuana
CNN, February 22, 2019 | Dan Merica and Sophie Tatum
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Klobuchar: On criminal justice reform, it’s time for a second step
CNN, April 5, 2019 | Amy Klobuchar
Amy Klobuchar has a plan to reverse the war on drugs – and doesn’t need Congress to do it
Vox, April 30, 2019 | German Lopez
Kamala Harris on Drug Decriminalization
Harris supports legalized marijuana.
Harris is co-sponsor of the Marijuana Justice Act of 2019 which would legalize marijana by removing it from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act.
According to her campaign website, Senator Harris favors expunging records for marijuana offenses, investing in re-entry support and job training, and stopping the reporting of convictions on job applications.
Harris is the chief Senate sponsor of the proposed Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act of 2019, which would decriminalize and deschedule cannabis, provide for reinvestment in certain persons adversely impacted by the War on Drugs, and provide for expungement of certain cannabis offenses.
“Times have changed — marijuana should not be a crime. We need to start regulating marijuana, and expunge marijuana convictions from the records of millions of Americans so they can get on with their lives. As marijuana becomes legal across the country, we must make sure everyone — especially communities of color that have been disproportionately impacted by the War on Drugs — has a real opportunity to participate in this growing industry.”
Harris, Nadler Introduce Comprehensive Marijuana Reform Legislation
U.S. Senate website for Kamala Harris, July 23, 2019
Read More
Kamala’s Plan to Transform the Criminal Justice System and Re-envision Public Safety in America
Campaign website for Kamala Harris, 2019
S.2227-MORE act of 2019
Congress Website, July 2019 | Kamala Harris
Julián Castro on Drug Decriminalization
Castro promises to end the War on Drugs.
Castro favors legalization of marijuana, and believes a key component of marijuana legalization is the expungement of marijuana-related charges for individuals with existing charges on their records.
Castro promises to eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, and will order a federal review of all other sentencing guidelines to address other possible racial disparities in sentencing.
In an interview with the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition in November, 2019, Castro indicated an openness for exploring decriminalization or other alternatives for drug enforcement beyond just marijuana.
Castro pledges to increase security at U.S. ports of entry to prevent the trafficking of drugs like fentanyl into the U.S.
Castro believes there should be harsher penalties for individuals who sell drugs or traffick drugs into the U.S.
Under his leadership, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a 2014 memo clarifying that owners of federally assisted housing facilities are required to deny entry to people who use controlled substances, including marijuana, even for medical purposes in accordance with state law. The guidance did say, however, that it is up to owners’ discretion whether people who already live in public housing must be evicted if cannabis use is later discovered. In a Nov. 2019 roundtable discussion with IHRC, Castro responded to a question about this memo, stating, “... That memo that was published I think in December of 2014, basically was a restatement of the federal law in place, right? And for those who follow these memos, these memos are the kinds of memos that are regularly put out on these subjects. I think it was also signed by like an assistant secretary, right? And so there’s a signal there that we want to move in the direction of actually working to assist, working to help people who may be grappling with these issues and we in fact did a lot of that work. Our housing first work around ending homelessness in the United States provided emphasized housing with permanent supportive services, including for people who are grappling with substance issues, so I absolutely want us to continue to move in that direction. I also believe that ultimately, we need to change the law that marijuana should not be illegal. We should legalize marijuana… We should also in the least, deprioritize the enforcement of the use of other substances, so that we don’t have this model of the war on drugs that I think is a failed model but instead, focus on getting people the treatment that they need, and also, other opportunity, including housing. You know, I will say, right, anytime you’re in a public housing situation, you do have a concern because it’s in a community, and so to the extent that the people that manage public housing out there housing authorities do have to concern themselves with the entire community. So, if there are instances where situations arise of issues between residents, that also has to be addressed. One of the things that we did when I was HUD Secretary, is that we said, we gave guidance to housing authorities that, for instance, just because somebody has a criminal record that you shouldn’t “X” them out of public housing. That you have to go deeper than that, but that we didn’t want people to have this big “X” on their record that didn’t allow them to get public housing. We also have said that we don’t believe in this three strike, one strike actually in many housing authorities. This one strike and you’re out policy doesn’t make sense, that it has to be more nuanced than that. And I think that we need to continue along that path, both with concern for allowing people to get the help they need and the resources they need and to live in a safe decent place, and also you have to manage that with what’s happening in the community with other residents. We can strike a good balance I think.”
“I actually support the legalization of marijuana, and let me tell you why. Number one, we have enough experience in states like Colorado and other communities across our country that have shown how you can do this, how you can do it in a sensible way with good regulation. I mean, it’s going to be regulated, right? People are not going to be able to do whatever they want, but a well-regulated, legalized system of marijuana, I think, makes sense. On top of that, we need to go back and expunge the records of people who were imprisoned because of using marijuana. And… this part is important in part because there are a lot of people, and folks in this audience probably know some of them who have served jail time, right? And disproportionately it’s impacted communities of color and poor neighborhoods of people who have been imprisoned because of marijuana use. So, it’s not enough just to say we want to legalize it, we actually want to go back and expunge these records…”
Presidential Town Hall with Julian Castro
CNN, April 11, 2019
“We need to ensure that we build on the First Step Act and reform our criminal justice system. That we do things like legalize marijuana. That we encourage communities to go back and expunge the records of too many who have been caught up in this criminal justice system and locked behind bars for small-level offenses.”
Beto O’Rourke, Andrew Yang, Julian Castro Speak at National Action Network Event
NowThis News, April 3, 2019
“…I do think for instance when we compare it to marijuana right now, that we have good evidence that we can regulate that in a sensible way. We have it in Colorado and other states now that have allowed recreational use of marijuana, which I agree with, and so there’s good evidence out there. I’m open to the United States looking at other substances that we can either decriminalize or de-enforce, deprioritize enforcement of. That’s newer right? I mean the evidence of that in our country is newer, and so I do think though that it’s worth taking a look at that and understanding where are those opportunities to either decriminalize or at least de-emphasize enforcement so that we’re not penalizing individuals who should instead be getting the treatment that they need. I believe in that model, generally. I don’t believe in cracking down on people, and like I said, a lot of folks getting caught up in an incarceration system that takes them off of the productive path in life, and they’re never able to get back on because they have that record. And so, I’m very open to that, but you know it is for those of us who are policymakers or aspiring to be, that is newer. I look forward to understanding how we can do that, and make sure that we can do it in the same orderly way, workable way that we’ve been able to do with marijuana in these states.”
Julian Castro – IHRC 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Forum on the Overdose Crisis – Event 2
November 23, 2019
“I would make sure as president that we have harsh penalties against people who traffic in fentanyl and similar drugs. I also believe we need to make smart investments in our ports of entry so that we can crack down further on the trafficking of fentanyl and other drugs… One thing that I believe we should do is to better invest in security at our ports of entry so that we can do things like catch more of the fentanyl that is coming through… I agree with those who say that we need harsher sentences for people who sell those drugs. We have — when it comes to the users of drugs, for instance, people who have used marijuana in comparison, we have locked people up for generations. There are tons and tons of people who have sat in jail for relatively low-level offenses. We ought to be going after people who are selling these drugs.”
Presidential Town Hall with Julian Castro
CNN, April 11, 2019
“When it comes to the issue of [opioid] prescriptions, I hear that. I also hear from people that we want to make sure that if somebody actually needs medication or a certain drug, that they’re able to get that too, and so, I am mindful of not being overzealous in a way that hurts people who actually need certain medication.”
Julian Castro – IHRC 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Forum on the Overdose Crisis – Event 2
November 23, 2019
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The First Chance Plan
Julian Castro campaign website, 2019
Use of Marijuana in Multifamily Assisted Properties
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, December 29, 2014 | Benjamin T. Metcalf
Julian Castro – IHRC 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Forum on the Overdose Crisis – Event 2
November 23, 2019
Julian Castro presidency would make sure patients who actually need opioids could get them
Blake Dodge, November 30, 2019 | Newsweek
Julian Castro Open To Decriminalizing Drugs And Endorses Safe Consumption Sites
Kyle Jaeger, November 29, 2019 | Marijuana Moment
IHRC discusses drug policy with presidential candidates
Brian Tabick, November 23, 2019 | KCRG
Harris highlights contrasts with rivals Sanders, Warren
O. Kay Henderson, November 25, 2019 | Radio Iowa
Pete Buttigieg on Drug Decriminalization
Buttigieg’s “Healing and Belonging in America” plan emphasizes the need to divert people who use drugs away from prisons and into treatment. He intends to accomplish this by expanding diversionary programs and evidence-based training “for drug courts, mental health courts, and other alternatives to incarceration for justice-involved persons.”
The goal of Buttegieg’s proposed decriminalization and diversion model is to reduce “the number of people incarcerated due to mental illness or substance use by 75 percent in the first term.”
Buttigieg supports marijuana legalization, and will expunge past marijuana convictions.
Buttegieg will eliminate incarceration for drug possession at the federal level.
Buttegieg plans to reduce sentences for all other drug offenses, and apply these reductions retroactively.
“To ensure that people with a mental illness or substance use disorder can heal, we will decriminalize these conditions.”
HEALING AND BELONGING IN AMERICA: A Plan to Improve Mental Health Care and Combat Addiction
Buttigieg campaign website, 2019
Read More
Buttigieg Pledges To Decriminalize Possession Of All Drugs In First Term As President
Marijuana Moment | August 23, 2019 | Kyle Jaeger
HEALING AND BELONGING IN AMERICA: A Plan to Improve Mental Health Care and Combat Addiction
Buttigieg campaign website, 2019
Cory Booker on Drug Decriminalization
Booker makes cannabis legalization a core policy, in order to address racial disparities in policing. He authored the 2017 Marijuana Reform Act, an approach to expunge criminal records for those with cannabis related offenses and legalize cannabis at a federal level.
Booker accused the federal government of undermining people with addiction through punishment rather than treatment in 2012.
“I get very angry when people talk about legalizing marijuana and then give no light to how marijuana law enforcement was done in ways that fed upon poor communities — black and brown communities,” Booker said. “This is a war on drugs that has not been a war on drugs — it’s been a war on people, and disproportionately poor people and disproportionately black and brown people.”
Why Cory Booker Declined to Co-Sponsor The New Marijuana Bill
Marijuana Merchant Account, April 24, 2019 | Brian Ellis
“I have a lot of respect for the Vice President [Biden]. He is – swore me into my office – is a hero. This week I hear him literally say that I don’t think we should legalize marijuana. I thought you [Biden] might have been high when you said it. Let me tell you, because marijuana in our country is already legal for privileged people… The War on Drugs has been a war on black and brown people. And let me just say this, with more African Americans under criminal supervision in America than all the slaves since 1850, do not roll up into communities and not talk directly to issues that are going to relate to the liberation of children, because there are people in Congress right now that admit to smoking marijuana while there are people, our kids who are in jail right now for those drug crimes.”
Read More
Presidential Candidates, the Election, and Drug Policy
Psychology Today, May 7, 2019 | Adi Jaffe, Ph.D.
Exclusive: Cory Booker says weed legalization must include justice for victims of war on drugs
Vice News, April 9, 2019 | Matt Laslo
Booker to Biden on not legalizing marijuana: ‘I thought you might have been high’
MSNBC, November 20, 2019
Get Involved
Substance Use Treatment Access
Substance Use Treatment Access
Substance use disorder treatment is notoriously difficult to access, complicated both by geography and financing. For opioid use disorder, as many chronic health conditions, pharmaceutical therapy is the first line of treatment. Yet the recommended medications – methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone – are tightly regulated, which makes increasing their availability to meet consumer demand a challenge. Methadone must be offered outside of the health care system in individual clinics, while prescribers must obtain training and licensure to prescribe buprenorphine, beyond their existing training as prescribers.
This creates a high level of system complexity, in which many people seeking treatment – even those with a remarkable degree of health literacy – often fail to identify a provider who can help them.
Transportation further complicates treatment access, particularly for those individuals living in rural communities who must visit a methadone clinic on a daily basis, or travel over four hours to the nearest suboxone (buprenorphine) prescriber. On top of these unique challenges, people without health insurance and those whose insurance chooses not to cover substance use disorder treatment are excluded from care, making recovery unattainable for many patients. Many barriers to treatment access can be easily addressed at the federal level and by the President, including the abolition of the X waiver process for medical professionals to prescribe suboxone. The President may also expand health care access, thus expanding treatment access, and work with congress to continue the flow of federal dollars into communities in order to ensure that funding is available for treatment for those that desire it.
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Tulsi Gabbard on Substance Use Treatment Access
Gabbard voted to pass the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) of 2016, which requires the Department of Health & Human Services to provide grants to states for substance use treatment and expanded.
Gabbard supports Medicare for All.
When asked in by Ronald Haley, member of the 2020 Bipartisan Justice Center whether she would commit to freeing individuals who are incarcerated due to drug charges, Gabbard responded, “Yes… we have to completely change the way that we are viewing this challenge where people are being and have been incarcerated purely for drug use violations while many others are going scot free. Being incarcerated because they are victims of this failed war on drugs that’s been waged now for decades that really has not solved any of the problems that they said it would solve, but really has just proven to be so costly for the people who have been caught up in that net. Drug abuse, substance abuse, and addiction requires health care and health treatment. Often there are other issues that surround drug use and addiction – issues related to mental health or other things where people are self-medicating rather than actually being able to get the help that they need. This issue, like so many others, if we actually get to the root cause of the problems that’s causing this action or reaction to occur, and provide that service, provide that help, then we can prevent so much of the pain and the suffering that occurs as a result.”
“This is about recovery. This is about addiction. We need to address that reality and help resolve some of the root causes of why people are turning to different substances in the first place… Our failed war on drugs has turned everyday Americans who are struggling with substance abuse and addiction and turned them into criminals.”
While discussing opioids, Gabbard said, “We’ve got to look at treatment, and actually providing resources towards recovery and making it so that we are not treating addiction as a crime but rather as something that, we need to be able to provide people with help in putting their lives back together and walking that path forward.”
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Rep. Tulsi Gabbard: Drug use and addiction requires healthcare, not incarceration
October 27, 2019 | MSNBC
CNN Presidential Town Hall with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
March 10, 2019 | CNN
2020 Candidate Conversation: U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
March 21, 2019 | New Hampshire Public Radio
S524 – Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016
U.S. Congress website, July 22, 2019
How the Democratic presidential candidates would combat the opioid epidemic
Vox, September 10, 2019
Beto O’Rourke on Substance Use Treatment Access
O'Rourke is supportive of the use of tying reimbursement for health care services (on the provider side) to the use of clinical guidelines, thus tying accountability into treatment services delivered with people seeking care for substance use disorders. This means that addiction treatment programs would be held to the same standard as other health care agencies in being required to provide evidence-based care.
O'Rourke believes health care is a fundamental right, and recognizes that the federal government must play its part in offering healthcare to those who need it. Prioritizes enforcement of the federal parity law. Will work with Congress to enact Medicare for America as a means to ensure that every American can get the care they need, including mental health services or treatment for addiction. Medicare for America would fully cover mental health services and eliminate out of pocket costs for those with serious mental illnesses.
O'Rourke would allow individuals to complete a program through their treatment regimen and have their charges dismissed. This not only costs substantially less than prison, but leads to significantly greater health and behavioral outcomes.
O'Rourke states that he would use the authority of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Center for Medicare / Medicaid Services (CMS) to shut down treatment centers that deceive or overbill patients, or use illegal lead generation practices.
O'Rourke says he believes in expanding access to buprenorphine and holding pharmaceutical executives accountable for knowingly and deliberately pushing for highly addictive opioid medications to be over-prescribed.
O'Rourke says that mental health and substance use disorders must be treated as a public health opportunity rather than a criminal justice concern, and that for far too many, mental health care and substance abuse treatment does not begin until after one interacts with the criminal justice system. He wants to shift the point of care by providing for pre-trial intervention for simple drug possession through community-based treatments that lead individuals toward rehabilitation.
O'Rourke also believes that regulation is needed to crack down on “product hopping,” which allows pharmaceutical companies to make minor changes to a drug (switching from a capsule formulation to a tablet) in order to generate a new period of exclusivity and then heavily promote it to convince physicians to switch to the more expensive drug without generic competition. He states that the would task the FTC with cracking down on this practice, in order to keep the price of medications like buprenorphine and methadone affordable for patients.
Beto wants to “Ensure access to treatment to enable long-term recovery, providing access to medication-based recovery and supporting at risk populations, including rural Americans, veterans, Native Americans, and incarcerated individuals.”
Beto “will enact Medicare for America, which will ensure universal, guaranteed, high-quality health care that includes mental health care. This will eliminate barriers to medication-assisted recovery, including coverage by insurance of FDA-approved maintenance medications, also referred to as medication-assisted recovery, including buprenorphine, methadone and Suboxone. He would also allow clinicians to prescribe buprenorphine without having to undergo an invasive process. Clinicians are currently required to undergo training, receive an additional license, and submit patient records to the DEA.”
“Improve the quality and reduce the cost of treatment by tackling abusive practices of the substance use disorder treatment industry. There is currently no entity within the federal government regulating facilities that oversee treatment for substance use disorder, and much of the U.S. substance use disorder treatment industry does not provide evidence-based, effective care consistent with long-term recovery. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has over 4,000 quality measures, but there are zero for substance use and opioid use disorder programs.”
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Beto O’Rourke on the Record about Mental Health and Addiction
Mental Health for US
Watch: Beto talks solutions to the opioid crisis at the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition
October 24, 2019
Beto’s Plan to Address Substance Use Disorders and the Opioid Epidemic
Medium | October 24, 2019 | Beto O’Rourke
Andrew Yang On Substance Use Treatment Access
Yang would declare a state of emergency and seek to bring down both the overdose number and addiction levels by 20% within four years.
Yang promises to make treatment programs much more available and affordable to anyone found with small quantities of these drugs.
Yang would require patients who have overdosed to be sent to "mandatory treatment centers" for three days to convince them to seek long-term treatment.
Yang would increase FDA regulation of opioids.
Yang would provide grants for their own treatment programs to states that decriminalize small quantities of opioid use/possession.
Yang would quintuple federal funding, from 4.5 billion to 20 billion per year to address opioid addiction through treatment and rehabilitation programs.
Yang would impose a new tax on opiate manufacturers to fund treatment and rehabilitation, retroactive to 2005.
“Let’s be honest – the opiate addiction crisis exists in large part because our government thought it was okay for companies to make a lot of money prescribing addictive opiates to millions of people. This was a failure of government. And now the Federal Government must do all it can to address this crisis, including funding treatment for millions of Americans. There is a modern-day plague in America and we cannot rest until it is controlled and defeated. Americans are dying every day—7 every hour—destroying families and communities everywhere. I will declare a state of emergency and commit billions of dollars to the fight, much of it from the drug companies who generated and have profited from this plague. If you or someone in your family has an opiate problem, we will provide you the resources you need to help you recover. We owe you that.”
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Decriminalize Opioids
Andrew Yang campaign website, 2019
Elizabeth Warren on Substance Use Treatment Access
Warren introduced the proposed CARE Act, which would commit $100 billion over 10 years to funding addiction treatment and harm reduction programs at the local, state, and federal levels. This would include $1.1 billion for public and nonprofit entities “on the front lines, including those working with underserved populations and workers at high risk for addiction, and to support expanded and innovative service delivery of treatment, recovery, and harm reduction services.”
Warren promises to expand the availability of buprenorphine.
“Resources would be used to support the whole continuum of care, from early intervention for those at risk for addiction, to harm reduction for those struggling with addiction, to long-term support services for those in recovery. Along with addiction treatment, the CARE Act would ensure access to mental health services and help provide critical wraparound services like housing support and medical transportation for those who need them.”
My comprehensive plan to end the opioid crisis
Medium, May 8, 2019 | Elizabeth Warren
“In talking to congressional staffers over the past few years, I’ve repeatedly heard that Republicans are very resistant to spending much more money on the opioid crisis — and at least some GOP support would be needed to pass a bill.”
How the Democratic presidential candidates would combat the opioid epidemic
Vox, September 10, 2019 | Geman Lopez
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My comprehensive plan to end the opioid crisis
Medium, May 8, 2019 | Elizabeth Warren
How the Democratic presidential candidates would combat the opioid epidemic
Vox, September 10, 2019 | Geman Lopez
Elizabeth Warren proposes paying for an ambitious plan to spend $100 billion fighting the opioid crisis with her new tax on the ultra-rich
Business Insider, May 8, 2019 | Eliza Relman
Elizabeth Warren’s ambitious plan to fight the opioid epidemic, explained
Vox, February 19, 2019 | German Lopez
Bernie Sanders on Substance Use Treatment Access
Sanders voted yes on a 2000 U.S. Congress appropriations bill which would have increased funding for substance use treatment alternatives to incarceration.
Sanders sponsored the Community Health Centers and Primary Care Workforce Expansion Act of 2019, which would expand and improve community health centers in both rural and urban areas, in part, to address the needs of individuals impacted by drug use.
Sanders would guarantee access to free medical care in prisons and jails, including professional and evidence-based substance abuse and trauma-informed mental health treatment.
Sanders would provide people with addiction free inpatient and outpatient substance use and mental health services with no copayments or deductibles through a Medicare-for-all, single-payer program.
Sanders voted in support of the 2018 SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, which would create treatment and recovery programs and fund laboratories to detect imported synthetic drugs, such as fentanyl.
Sanders co-sponsored the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) of 2016.
Sanders co-sponsored the Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act of 2019 which would commit $100 billion over 10 years to funding addiction treatment and harm reduction programs at the local, state, and federal levels.
Sanders would decriminalize possession of buprenorphine.
Solving the opioid epidemic is not a simple thing. We must make sure people have access to treatment, so they can get help where and when they need it. We must invest in what people need for a successful long-term recovery, like counseling and peer support, employment, and housing. And it means taking a hard look at the issues in our society that are causing so many people to turn to drugs in the first place, so that we can prevent others from becoming addicted.”
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Justice and Safety for All
Bernie Sanders campaign website, 2019
Sanders, Welch Announce $4 Million in New Funds for Vermont to Combat the Opioid Epidemic
Bernie Sanders senate website, June 18, 2018
Amy Klobuchar on Substance Use Treatment Access
Klobuchar’s proposes $100 billion to combat drug and alcohol addiction and to improve mental health care. Klobuchar references her dad, who is in recovery from long-term alcohol
Klobuchar would increase funding for addiction and mental health programs, and would increase the number of beds in mental health and substance use treatment centers, especially in rural areas, and especially in areas hit hardest by the overdose crisis.
Klobuchar would expand Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics and treatment facilities.
Klobuchar would more strictly enforce the requirement of the Affordable Care Act that insurers cover mental health care.
Klobuchar will “make a major investment” into research and development of pain management alternatives to opioids.
Klobuchar would permanently repeal Medicaid’s “IMD Exclusion,” which prohibits Medicaid reimbursements for those receiving mental health or substance use care in facilities with more than 16 beds.
Klobuchar plan to address substance use includes funding for mental health programs at schools, as well, training for healthcare providers to recognize early warning signs of addiction and other mental health conditions, and school and community drug early-intervention programs.
Klobuchar would support public and nonprofit entities dealing in substance use treatment.
Klobuchar would increase funding for early intervention and treatment programs for drugs including cocaine and methamphetamine.
Klobuchar would increase the numbers of job training programs, transitional housing programs, and other social services for individuals in recovery.
Klobuchar will work to improve the unused prescription disposal options. In 2010, Klobuchar led the passage of the first major expansion of federal drug take-back programs with the National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day campaign.
“I want other people to be pursued by grace. I want them to have the ability to get through this [addiction], and sometimes you can’t get through it the first time, and that includes people who are addicted to very difficult substances to get through – opioids, heroin now, that is out there more and more than we ever could have imagined, what we’re seeing with meth. Those are drugs that people are affected by in every community in this country.”
Klobuchar releases plan to treat substance abuse, mental illness
NBC News, May 3, 2019 | Ali Vitali and Kailani Koenig
“I think every American should have that right to be pursued by grace. That means enough beds in this country for people with mental health problems if they’re facing a crisis. That means doing something about our mounting suicide rate – for farmers, for veterans, for LGBTQ youth – and that means instead of just talking about this, actually putting the money into treatment. I have a proposal that’s paid for by yes, two cents per milligram fee on these opioid pharma companies that have made tons of money off the backs of people who got addicted, and you can use that money for not just opioids, you can also use it for these other drugs, as well as mental health. It means making sure on the road to recovery, you’ve got a job and you’ve got a place to live, and there are so many people in this country that are crying out for help.”
Klobuchar on new plan to address addiction, mental health
CNN, July 30, 2019 | Jake Tapper
“Well, the first thing I did would probably be our bigger bulk of cases was in drug court. We had very successful and have a very successful drug court, and that really is that second chance idea. That’s the idea that, yes, you could be facing jail time or prison time but its hung over your head, so you have a community, and you have treatment that helps you get through it, because we don’t like to see repeat customers in the criminal justice system. We like them to go out of the criminal justice system.”
Klobuchar releases plan to treat substance abuse, mental illness
NBC News, May 3, 2019 | Ali Vitali and Kailani Koenig
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Amy Klobuchar Proposes $100 Billion for Addiction and Mental Health
The New York Times, May 3, 2019 | Maggie Astor
Amy’s Plan to Combat Addiction and Prioritize Mental Health
Medium, May 3, 2019 | Amy for America
Kamala Harris on Substance Use Treatment Access
Harris's Medicare for All plan guarantees treatment availability for all
In addition to her Medicare for All plan, which guarantees treatment availability for all, Harris is co-sponsor of the Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act which would provide state and local governments with $100 billion in federal funding over the next ten years to support addiction treatment and harm reduction services.
“In 2017, the administration declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency, but the fund they used to deal with it had only — I kid you not — $57,000 in it. That represents less than one dollar for each person who died of a drug overdose that year. It’s unconscionable… We need to make sure that people who are addicted have access to medication-assisted-treatment (MAT) — drugs like buprenorphine which prevents withdrawal symptoms and cravings without producing the kind of high that heroin or OxyContin does. Many insurance companies will cover the cost of opioids while charging more than $200 a month for buprenorphine. That has to change. We have to change it.”
(The Truths We Hold, by Kamala Harris, pp. 206-207, Jan 8 2019)
The Opioid Crisis Requires Emergency Mobilization
The Truths We Hold pp. 206-207, January 8, 2019 | Kamala Harris
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Kamala Harris Clarifies Her HIV Policy Positions
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
The Opioid Crisis Requires Emergency Mobilization
The Truths We Hold pp. 206-207, January 8, 2019 | Kamala Harris
How the Democratic presidential candidates would combat the opioid epidemic
Vox, October 24, 2019 | German Lopez
Julián Castro on Substance Use Treatment Access
Castro promises to address the opioid crisis and addiction as a public health issue. He also pledges to invest in new initiatives to prevent dangerous drug use and treat addiction.
In a conversation with IHRC, Castro said he would consider removing the “X” waiver requirements for buprenorphine and methadone prescribing.
“Washington needs to be a partner for states like New Hampshire who has had quite a problem with the opioid crisis. And if I’m president I’ll be a strong partner.”
Castro visits recovery center in Laconia after launching presidential campaign
WMUR-TV, January 16, 2019 | Adam Sexton
At a conversation at the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition drop-in center in Cedar Rapids, IHRC Executive Director asked if Castro would support removing the “X” waiver for buprenorphine and methadone prescribing. Castro responded, “Well and I agree with you. I think underlying that question is that we can do this in a way where we maintain safety for patients and integrity in the system and accountability right for those who are prescribing. So yes, I believe that we can do that without the cumbersome process that we have in place right now that requires this waiver, because you make a point, there are other prescriptions that are written now that don’t require anything like that, so I would support moving in that direction.” Ziegenhorn followed up by asking pointedly, “Would you commit to getting rid of the X waiver?” As the room and the Secretary laughed, he replied, “I am open to that. Let me research it a little bit more. Today was the first day that I heard about that, yes. I have generally avoided in this campaign, committing on the spot to things I have not fully read about, but I will take a look at it.” Ziegenhorn laughed as well, commenting, “That’s very reasonable.”
“During the campaign I’ve articulated a vision for the future of our country where everyone counts, and where we don’t leave anybody out. We don’t otherize people, but instead, we ensure that everybody has the tools that they need in the years to come and the support they need to be able to live a healthy and prosperous life. And what I’ve seen as Mayor of San Antonio, as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is that often times, we write people off, people who are in the throes of, you know, an addiction who may be using opioids or who are overdosing. Instead of being able to get the help that they need, too often times they’re ostracized or unable to find the resources that they need when they need it. And so, what I would like to see us do in the years to come, both immediately and then also as we transition to a healthcare system that is actually able to meet the needs of every single person in this country, I would like to see us invest more in those resources that get directly at the people who need them, without the stigma that is often associated with those services right now and for the federal government to be a strong partner with state and local efforts to do that instead of a hinderance.”
Julian Castro – IHRC 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Forum on the Overdose Crisis – Event 2
November 23, 2019
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The First Chance Plan
Julian Castro campaign website, 2019
Julian Castro – IHRC 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Forum on the Overdose Crisis – Event 2
November 23, 2019
Julian Castro presidency would make sure patients who actually need opioids could get them
Blake Dodge, November 30, 2019
Newsweek
Julian Castro Open To Decriminalizing Drugs And Endorses Safe Consumption Sites
Kyle Jaeger, November 29, 2019 | Marijuana Moment
IHRC discusses drug policy with presidential candidates
Brian Tabick, November 23, 2019 | KCRG
Harris highlights contrasts with rivals Sanders, Warren
O. Kay Henderson, November 25, 2019 | Radio Iowa
Pete Buttigieg on Substance Use Treatment Access
Buttigieg’s plan would deregulate buprenorphine at the federal level, while increasing the number of clinicians able to prescribe medication-assisted treatment (MAT).
Buttigieg plans to standardize addiction treatment by defining the elements of care provided throughout the continuum of care using national guidelines.
Buttigieg will incentivize states to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates that clinicians receive for providing MAT.
Buttigieg promises to prioritize research to develop medication to treat other types of drug dependence disorders.
Buttigieg’s substance use proposal specifically provides $10 billion to local communities via an annual grant program. Healing and Belonging grants would fund policies and programs focused on prevention, care integration, and community. The plan specifically includes funding to expand the peer support workforce.
Buttigieg would require all insurers to cover all three types of MAT to treat opioid addiction.
Buttigieg pledges to end policies that require patients to wait days or weeks to receive access to MAT by getting rid of prior authorization.
Buttigieg plans to increase mobile clinics and access to longer-lasting forms of MAT for patients in rural or medically underserved areas
Buttigieg will invest $100 billion dollars through a 10-year grant program to assist communities most impacted by addiction.
“For years, politicians in Washington have claimed to prioritize mental health care while slashing funding for treatment and ignoring America’s growing addiction and mental health crisis. That neglect must end. Our plan breaks down the barriers around mental health and builds up a sense of belonging that will help millions of suffering Americans heal.”
Democrat Buttigieg wants to save million lives through plan fighting mental health, addiction
Reuters, August 23, 2019 | Tim Reid
Read More
Buttigieg Unveils Plan to Improve Mental Health Care and Fight Addiction
CBS News | August 23, 2019 | Jack Turman
I Spent a Decade Addicted to Opioids, Here’s why Pete Buttigieg’s Plan Gives Me HopeThe Hill
September 15, 2019 | Ryan Hampton
Cory Booker on Substance Use Treatment Access
Booker expects his health care plan to ensure access to treatment.
Booker is co-sponsor of the proposed CARE Act, which would commit $100 billion over 10 years to funding addiction treatment and harm reduction programs at the local, state, and federal levels.
Booker co-authored the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act, which enhances patient access to non-opioid treatment options and directs Medicaid to conduct a study on utilization management controls applied to medication-assisted treatment options in both fee-for-service and managed care Medicaid programs.
“We absolutely have to treat this issue as, at its core, a crisis of public health. The thinking behind the harsh sentencing laws of the 1980s and 90’s was sorely misguided, leading to a policy that was not only ineffective in reducing crime, but also disproportionately targeted at low-level, nonviolent drug offenders. These are the very individuals who would serve to benefit the most from a federal criminal justice policy that emphasizes treatment over punishment, providing resources to identify and treat incarcerated Americans suffering from drug addiction. By provisioning more resources for treatment, we can address the problem of recidivism – each year, around 600,000 Americans finish their prison sentences and re-enter their communities; but two out of every three are rearrested within three years of their release.”
Lessons from New Jersey: How U.S. Senator Cory Booker is Addressing Addiction
Center on Addiction, November 15, 2016 | Nkem Osian
Read More
How the Democratic presidential candidates would combat the opioid epidemic
Vox, September 10, 2019 | Geman Lopez
Lessons from New Jersey: How U.S. Senator Cory Booker is Addressing Addiction
Center on Addiction, November 15, 2016 | Nkem Osian
Get Involved
Syringe Access
Syringe Access
Syringe exchange programs are critical to ending the spread of HIV, and to eliminating hepatitis C. The simple distribution of sterile hypodermic needles and syringes has been found to dramatically reduce the rates of bacterial infections of the skin and soft tissues, along with viral infections. The legalization of syringe exchange programs has been determined at the state level, but currently a federal ban prohibits the use of federal dollars for the purchase of needles and syringes – the necessary tool to HIV and HCV prevention. Be it ideological or financial, support for syringe exchange programs is critically important, and their impact extends far beyond HIV/HCV prevention. Syringe services programs are an opportunity to develop an infrastructure of support services for people who use and inject drugs. Robust funding of syringe service programs that can adequately support a given geographic area are a critical way to reach and engage a community of people that is often believed to be “hard to reach.”
With services that include syringe exchange, HIV and HCV testing, naloxone distribution and overdose prevention, linkage to drug treatment, and case management services for HCV, syringe exchange programs offer a robust set of health and social services that can significantly improve the health and wellbeing of people who use drugs – particularly when well-funded.
Without harm reduction services offered by syringe exchange, there is no need for treatment or recovery services.
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Tulsi Gabbard on Syringe Access
Gabbard has expressed support for needle exchange programs as a “good idea.”
When asked by a listener in a radio interview with New Hampshire Public Radio how Gabbard felt about needle exchange programs and safe consumption spaces, Gabbard answered, “I think that these programs, and I’ve heard a lot about kind of the Hub and Spoke program here in New Hampshire that are being implemented at the local level, do so much towards helping people find that safe space to begin that tough path towards recovery, towards ending that addiction. I want to bring up one thing that I think the state legislature here [New Hampshire] has passed, I think through the House [of Representatives], and that that is marijuana. I’ve introduced legislation at the federal level to end the federal marijuana prohibition for a whole host of reasons, but one of which is how we’ve seen a direct correlation in states that have either passed medical marijuana or completely decriminalized marijuana. We’ve seen that correlation in a drop in opioid addiction and also a correlating drop in opioid related deaths. So I think there’s a number of different avenues that we need to pursue to address this opioid crisis. Not a single one of them alone will be effective in doing so, but we have to treat it like the crisis that it is both in accountability and prosecution for those responsible for proliferating these drugs, and recovery and treatment and help for those who are suffering at the brunt of this crisis.” NHPR host Peter Biello followed up by asking for a clear yes or no on whether needle exchanges are a “good idea.” Gabbard responded, “Yes.”
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2020 Candidate Conversation: U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard
March 21, 2019 | New Hampshire Public Radio
Beto O’Rourke on Syringe Access
O'Rourke supports removing the federal funding ban that prohibits the use of federal dollars to purchase hypodermic needles or syringes for distribution in a syringe service program.
O'Rourke visited a harm reduction program in Iowa, and while learning about safe injection practices, remarked that syringe access programs not only are compassionate and humane, but offer a tremendous opportunity for saving health care dollars, due to the prevention of infectious disease.
O'Rourke's plan to address the opioid epidemic includes the allocation of $100 billion dollars, with harm reduction programs specifically named as a key beneficiary of this funding.
In order to “Ensure Access to Health Care and Interventions that Promote Long-Term Recovery, …” Beto supports, “Creating needle exchanges and supervised consumption sites where people can consume drugs they have obtained elsewhere in a controlled setting, under the supervision of trained staff, and with access to sterile injecting equipment.”
Beto’s Plan to Address Substance Use Disorders and the Opioid Epidemic
Medium, October 24, 2019 | Beto O’Rourke
Beto will also, “Implement innovative models for health care and interventions related to substance use disorder such as that used in Portugal, particularly mobile vans that travel to areas of high consumption to distribute medicines or needle exchanges, where individuals caught with drugs are sent to treatment instead of jail.”
Beto’s Plan to Address Substance Use Disorders and the Opioid Epidemic
Medium, October 24, 2019 | Beto O’Rourke
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Watch: Beto talks syringe exchange at the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition
October 24, 2019
Beto’s Plan to Address Substance Use Disorders and the Opioid Epidemic
Medium | October 24, 2019 | Beto O’Rourke
Andrew Yang On Syringe Access
Yang has not issued specific statements to this issue
Elizabeth Warren on Syringe Access
Warren supports syringe access and needle exchange programs.
“I’ll support evidence-based safe injection sites and needle exchanges, and expand the availability of buprenorphine to prevent overdoses.”
Ending private prisons and exploitation for profit
Medium, June 21, 2019 | Elizabeth Warren
Read More
Rethinking public safety to reduce mass incarceration and strengthen communities
Medium, August 20, 2019 | Elizabeth Warren
Bernie Sanders on Syringe Access
Sanders supports syringe exchange programs, and would legalize them across the country.
“The disastrous policies that make up the War on Drugs have not reduced drug use and violent crime. We must use effective therapeutic, not punitive, solutions to address drug addiction.”
Amy Klobuchar on Syringe Access
Klobuchar has not issued specific statements to this issue.
Julián Castro on Syringe Access
In a roundtable conversation with IHRC, Castro expressed support for syringe service programs and for lifting the federal funding ban for the purchase of syringes.
“Yes, I believe that we should invest in needle exchange programs that have shown themselves to be effective. Again, I think that that needs to be part of an overall strategy to help people get onto the path and life that they want. I don’t think any one piece is the answer just in and of itself, that it needs to be part of the strategy to get people the help that they need. Along with that strategy and those resource investments, then yes, I absolutely would [support lifting the federal funding ban on syringes], because I think we have enough evidence out there that needle exchange programs have worked. And I look at this through the perspective of how can we make sure that somebody is able to get the immediate help that they need to avoid worse outcomes? HIV or something else on top of right what they’re already dealing with and we have evidence that these work. So yes, I would [support lifting the federal funding ban on syringes].”
Julian Castro – IHRC 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Forum on the Overdose Crisis – Event 2
November 23, 2019
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Julian Castro – IHRC 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Forum on the Overdose Crisis – Event 2
November 23, 2019
Julian Castro Open To Decriminalizing Drugs And Endorses Safe Consumption Sites
Kyle Jaeger, November 29, 2019 | Marijuana Moment
IHRC discusses drug policy with presidential candidates
Brian Tabick, November 23, 2019 | KCRG
Pete Buttigieg on Syringe Access
Buttegieg states, in response to a policy questionnaire sent to his campaign by AIDS United, that he would remove legislative and regulatory restrictions on the use of federal funds for syringe service programs.
“Among the key steps to addressing this joint epidemic are: community based substance use prevention programs that address the social and community determinants of SUD, appropriate monitoring of prescribing practices of clinicians, employing a full range of harm reduction services, including removing restrictions on the use of federal funds for syringe services programs, broad availability of naloxone for overdose reversal — including distribution to users through syringe services programs and community availability on the same level as Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), access to comprehensive health care services from SUD disorder treatment that includes MAT and treatment for hepatitis C by assuring broader adoption of Medicaid expansion and through existing networks of safety-net providers, and a recognition that we also need to more broadly invest in social support services that should surround MAT, akin to the services available for people living with HIV under the Ryan White program.”
“To expand harm reduction services we will remove legislative and regulatory restrictions on the use of federal funds for syringe service programs. Under current law, local authorities have to jump through too many hoops to use federal dollars for operation of SSPs and may not use these funds for the purchase of syringes. These restrictions hamper state and local responses, both because they limit resources and because they convey a negative message about the value of these programs, despite overwhelming scientific evidence that they can prevent transmission of HIV and hepatitis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would also work with states to remove any criminal liability for those participating in SSPs.”
Read More
2020 Presidential Candidate Questionnaire
AIDS United
Pete Buttigieg
The Full Plan – Healing and Belonging in America: A Plan to Improve Mental Health Care and Combat Addiction
August 23, 2019
Four Things an HIV Policy Survey Reveals About 2020 Candidates’ Harm Reduction Positions
Filter Magazine, September 10, 2019
Cory Booker on Syringe Access
Booker supports needle exchange program legalization.
“As Mayor of Newark, I fought for and helped open the city’s first needle-exchange center and saw firsthand how effective they could be.”
Cory Booker Explains His HIV Policy Ideas
HIV+Magazine, September 9, 2019 | Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Read More
Cory Booker is running for president in 2020. Here’s everything we know about the candidate and how he stacks up against the competition.
Business Insider, September 13, 2019 | John Haltiwanger and Joseph Zeballos-Roig
Joe Biden on Syringe Access
Biden has not issued specific statements to this issue
