Street roots., May 20, 2016, Page 5, Image 5

News
Street Roots • May 20-26, 2016
DRUGS, from page 4
urge a different approach moving forward,
that was a success even if the outcome
document was n o t
(Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon also signed
the letter.)
E.G.: Were the presidents of Mexico,
Guatemala and Colombia asking for an end
to the drug war at the assembly?
E.F.: They were challenging it, and asking
for an acknowledgement of the human toll
their countries have suffered, and that,
potentially, we follow in the steps of
countries like Portugal that have
decriminalized all drugs.
There was an informal coalition that came
together from countries, mostly in Central
America, Europe and the Caribbean, before
UNGASS, trying to build enough
momentum for reform, but unfortunately
there are actors like Russia, in particular,
and also countries that still have the death
penalty for drug offenses, who were able to
resist that push and keep reform from
moving forward.
(According to Amnesty International,
drug offenses are punishable by death in
more than 30 countries, including Iran,
China, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.)
E.G.: Switching to marijuana laws in
Oregon: Is marijuana truly legal, and is this
what you envisioned when you were working
with the Measure 91 campaign?
E.F.: I had no idea of the complexities of
the debate that would emerge, particularly
in the Legislature, around the way that the
marijuana producers and retailers are
regulated, and all the intricacies of that.
Although Measure 91 reduced criminal
penalties for marijuana, I didn’t think it
went far enough. It was not retroactive. In
the 2015 legislative session, the Legislature
reduced criminal penalties even further,
making most marijuana felonies now
misdemeanors, and making that retroactive,
which means there were 78,000 Oregonians
who now have the opportunity to have past
"Since the 1980s, the federal penalties for crack
cocaine were 1OO times harsher than powder co­
caine, even though there is no scientifically justi­
fiable reason to treat these two different forms of
the same drug so differently.... Right now, if yon
get caught with crack cocaine, yonr sentence w ill
be 18 times harsher than with powder."
convictions either expunged or reduced, and
their records could be sealed. That piece
was what I was hoping would happen - that
there would be some real impacts on
people’s lives.
In the 2016 legislative session, they
decided to treat medical marijuana like
prescription drugs for folks on parole,
probation or post-prison supervision.
(House Bill 4014 became operative on
March 1). However, recreational marijuana
is not treated like alcohol for all persons
over 21 who are on parole or probation,
which means that it can still be a violation of
someone’s parole, and that’s a huge
problem.
It’s really not in line with the intent of
voters, who, with Measure 91, indicated that
marijuana should be treated like alcohol.
E.G.: While the laws went retroactive, if
you’re in an Oregon prison for a marijuana-
related offense, you’re not getting out early.
E.F.: Right. Is marijuana truly legal?
Absolutely n o t I think that Measure 91 was
one small step in the right direction.
In Oregon, marijuana penalties are still
much higher than similar penalties for
alcohol.
If an individual grows four legal plants in
their backyard but they produce - because
they’re a very skilled gardener - more than
the 8 ounces that’s allowed, they are then
subject to a misdemeanor.
If someone’s home falls within the 1,000-
feet boundary from a school and they grow
beyond the four plants allowed by the
measure, and instead grow five plants, then
they are subject to a Class C felony.
E.G.: Politicians are coming together across
party lines to tackle our nation’s mass-
incarceration problem. Just how much of the
problem is related to drugs?
E.F.: While we only have 5 percent of the
world’s population, we have 25 percent of
the world’s incarcerated population, and the
drug war has been a big driver of this
increase in criminalization of our populice.
Back in 1980, just when the drug war was
Page 5
in its nascent stages, we had 50,000 people
behind bars for drug offenses. Today we
have half .a million behind bars for drug
offenses, and it has had no discernible
impact on reducing problematic drug use or
the spread of drug-related disease and
overdoses.
It has disproportionately affected folks of
color. Those folks are experiencing much
higher arrest and incarceration rates, even
though the rates of drug use and drug
selling are comparable across all races. For
example, African-Americans make up 14
percent of drug users; however, (nationally)
they make up 37 percent of people arrested
for drugs.
E G .: I was looking at misdemeanor drug
and alcohol charges in Multnomah County in
2014, and exactly 37 percent of those booked
into jail on those charges were African-
American. It was the category with the greatest
disparity.
E.F.: At Drug Policy Alliance, one of our
goals is to reveal and expose these
disproportionate impacts on communities of
color and also to expose the underlying
systems that drive the different ways our
criminal justice system treats folks.
One of the most staggering examples of
this is crack cocaine sentencing laws.
Since the 1980s, the federal penalties for
crack cocaine were 100 times harsher than
powder cocaine, even though there is no
scientifically justifiable reason to treat these
two different forms of the same drug so
differently.
Back in 2010, Drug Policy Alliance played
a key role in changing those federal
sentencing disparities, and we got the crack
cocaine disparity down to 18 to 1. But that’s
still on the books. Right now, if you get
Caught with crack cocaine, your sentence
will be 18 times harsher than with powder.
What we found was that African-
Americans were the ones being
disproportionately arrested for crack
cocaine.
That’s just one example. We’re talking
about a $1 trillion, decades-long war, so
"In Oregon, marijuana penalties are still much
higher than sim ilar penalties for alco h o l....
If someone's home falls within the 1,000-feet
boundary from a school and they grow beyond
the four plants allowed by the measure, and
instead grow five plants, then they are subject to
a Class C felony."
See DRUGS, page 7
"Once folks are released from prison, if they have
a felony conviction on their record, in many states
they can't vote, they can't access public assistance,
so it's creating an entire caste system, a second
class of citizens, that Michelle Alexander rightly
framed as being as harmful to the black commu­
nity as the lim Crow laws."