The Drug Policy Alliance Network (DPA Network) is the nation's leading organization promoting policy alternatives to the drug war that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.

Our supporters are individuals who believe the war on drugs is doing more harm than good. Together we advance policies that reduce the harms of both drug misuse and drug prohibition, and seek solutions that promote safety while upholding the sovereignty of individuals over their own minds and bodies. We work to ensure that our nation’s drug policies no longer arrest, incarcerate, disenfranchise and otherwise harm millions of nonviolent people. Our work inevitably requires us to address the disproportionate impact of the drug war on people of color.

DPA Network is actively involved in the legislative process and seeks to roll back the excesses of the drug war, block new, harmful initiatives, and promote sensible drug policy reforms.  As a result of our work, hundreds of thousands of people have been diverted from incarceration to drug treatment programs, tens of thousands of sick and dying patients can safely access their medicine without being considered criminals under the law, and states like California have saved more than $1.5 billion by eliminating wasteful and ineffective law enforcement, prosecution and prison expenditures.
 
Consider becoming a member of DPA Network by making a contribution, sign up to receive important information and alerts via email, or take immediate action for reform. You can also get the latest drug policy research by visiting our partner organization, the Drug Policy Alliance.

DPA Network projects and initiatives include:

• Medical Marijuana in New Mexico
• Campaign for a Healthier New Jersey (Syringe Access)
• Real Reform – Reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws (New York)
• Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (California)

Learn more about our recent work in our 2009 Annual Report.

DPA Network Highlights

• Beginning in 1996 with California’s landmark medical marijuana law, Proposition 215, DPA Network affiliates were primarily responsible in California (1996), Alaska (1998), Oregon (1998), Washington (1998), Maine (1999), Colorado (2000), Nevada (1998 and 2000) and New Mexico (2007) for making cannabis legally available to seriously ill patients and reducing criminal penalties for possession, objectives supported by roughly three out of four Americans. As a result, hundreds of thousands of people who suffer from cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other serious illnesses and use marijuana as medicine are no longer criminals under state law.
  
  
• DPA Network’s outstanding victory was California’s landmark treatment-not-incarceration law Proposition 36, approved via ballot initiatives by 61 percent of California voters in November 2000. Prop. 36 allows first- and second-time nonviolent drug offenders the opportunity to receive substance abuse treatment instead of jail time.  More than 84,000 people were diverted from jail or prison to drug treatment and graduated from the program in the first five years after Prop. 36 became law, saving taxpayers at least $1.5 billion.
  
  
• DPA Network New Jersey’s greatest victory to date is its “Blood-borne Pathogen Harm Reduction Act,” which was signed into law in 2006. The law allows up to six cities to establish syringe access programs to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and other blood-borne diseases. Previously, DPA Network played a pivotal role in successful efforts to make syringes legally available in New York (2000) and California (2004), and supported successful efforts in Connecticut, Illinois and other states.
  
  
• DPA Network has worked across the country to pass 911 Good Samaritan immunity laws. The first of these was enacted in New Mexico, where DPA Network wrote and led the successful campaign in 2007 to pass a lifesaving law that encourages people who witness an overdose to call 911. The law provides limited immunity from drug possession charges when a drug-related overdose victim or a witness to an overdose seeks medical assistance.
  
  
• DPA Network has built broad coalitions to eliminate mandatory minimum sentencing (in Alabama, New York, Maryland and Wisconsin) and racially biased crack/cocaine sentencing schemes at the state (in Connecticut and California) and federal levels.