The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Maine are deeply committed to ending the "war on drugs" - a war which has cost $1 trillion but produced little to no effect on the supply of or demand for drugs.

The war on drugs has sent millions of people to prison for low-level offenses, and seriously eroded our civil liberties and civil rights while costing taxpayers billions of dollars a year, with nothing to show for it except our status as the world's largest incarcerator.

There are 2.3 million people behind bars in this country — triple the amount of prisoners we had in 1987 — and 25 percent of those incarcerated are locked up for drug offenses.  Taxpayers spend almost $70 billion a year on corrections and incarceration, when a far more sensible way to deal with a public health problem like drug addiction is to provide treatment, which studies clearly show to be more effective than incarceration.

Further, because of staggering racial disparities, this war has been particularly devastating to communities of color. Despite the fact that whites engage in drug offenses at a higher rate than African-Americans, African-Americans are incarcerated for drug offenses at a rate that is 10 times greater than that of whites.

So the ACLU and the ACLU of Maine continue to work – and to work hard - through advocacy, litigation and education, to end this failed war on drugs.

Here in Maine, we weigh in through a variety of channels –public speaking, communication with the press, review and pursuit of potential litigation, and providing testimony and lobbying on legislative bills related to criminalization of drugs, privacy, and other related concerns.

Every legislative session, the ACLU of Maine testifies on bills impacting these issues and continues to be integrally involved in the evolution of Maine's medical marijuana laws.

For example, two years ago, we drafted and submitted LD 1296, which amended Maine's medical marijuana law to restore patient privacy, instill legal protections against arrest and prosecution, and prohibit discrimination against medical marijuana patients, their caregivers and dispensary operators. We wrote the bill and - alongside sick and dying patients who testified passionately about how marijuana had returned to them some quality of life - sheparded it through the bi-partisan Health and Human Services Committee, achieving unanimous approval and setting the bill up for passage into law.

And we continue to work to protect seriously ill patients and their caregivers and to get the word out about the issue - most recently successfully arguing against Maine State Housing Authority's decision to withdraw funding from medical marijuana patients in public housing and sponsoring the Camden Film Festival’s showing of Code of the West (a documentary about Montana’s medical marijuana fight).

In addition to believing strongly that medical marijuana patients deserve access, privacy and dignity, we agree that, overall, criminalizing use of drugs is an unwarranted governmental intrusion into individual autonomy.  Prohibition imposes arbitrary, often harsh penalties for private conduct for which no criminal penalty is appropriate. It undermines privacy rights, contributes to vast overincarceration, is ineffective in addressing substance use appropriately and diverts scarce law enforcement resources away from serious crime.

Filling our prisons and jails with drug offenders has done nothing to reduce drug use, dependence, or availability. Furthermore, the impact of being convicted of a drug crime is permanent. When those who are incarcerated are released, they earn approximately 40 percent less than they did before entering prison — that means their economic mobility is almost half of what it was before incarceration.  They also face other significant long term impacts, including loss of employment, housing, and federal financial aid for college.

Finally, individuals should be empowered to control the flow of sensitive personal information about themselves, and prescription information (especially for controlled substances) is, of course, highly sensitive medical information. So we fight to ensure medical privacy across the board – whether through ensuring patient privacy and control of their information, to exposing the risks of large databases carrying such information. We know that some conditions and treatments carry themselves potential discrimination from employers, landlords and others due to stereotypes or other fears.  This information is nobody’s business except the patient and the prescribing physician, and should be maintained in the highest confidence.

Any problematic use of drugs should be addressed as a public health issue, not a criminal one. As with alcohol or tobacco, we should address problematic use of drugs with treatment and public education.  To do otherwise is inappropriate, ineffective, and leads to a host of unintended consequences, including widespread violations of privacy and other civil liberties.

For more on the ACLU's take on this issue check out these blogs, spanning a decade:
·      Here  
·      and here  
And these pieces of testimony (here, here and here) should give you a sense of the kind of work we're doing here in Maine.  Last session some of the bills the ACLU of Maine weighed in on included:
 
SUPPORTED

LD 750 - An Act To Decriminalize Possession of 6 or Fewer Marijuana Plants

LD 754 – An Act To Remove Criminal Penalties for Possession of up to 5 Ounces of Marijuana
 
LD 1296 – An Act To Amend the Maine Medical Use of Marijuana Act To Protect Patient Privacy

LD 1331 – An Act To Increase Health Care Quality through the Promotion of Health Information Exchange and the Protection of Patient Privacy

LD 1337 – An An Act To Ensure Patient Privacy and Control with Regard to Health Information Exchanges

LD 1824 – An Act To Provide Immunity for Prescribing and Dispensing Intranasal Naloxone Kits

LD 1827 - An Act To Amend the Laws Governing Prosecution of Individuals Possessing a Controlled Substance under Certain Circumstances

OPPOSED
LD 773 - An Act To Further Restrict the Availability of Methamphetamine and Amphetamine Pills

LD 887 – An Act To Include Medicinal Marijuana Patients in the Controlled Substances Prescription Monitoring Program

LD 914 - An Act To Make Certain Synthetic Cannabinoids Illegal

LD 1714 - An Act To Restrict Further the Amount of Methamphetamine Precursors That May be Bought or Sold

LD 1829 – An Act to Require Photographic Identification for Prescriptions for Certain Controlled Substances

LD 1852 – An Act to Provide a More Comprehensive Ban on the Possession of Synthetic Hallucinogenic Drugs

LD 1840  - An Act To Limit MaineCare Reimbursement for Methadone Treatment