What We Protected — and Built — Together in 2025

Criminalization remains the foundation of the drug war, diverting billions into punishment while communities increasingly struggle to access care. In 2025, DPA fought to protect and expand evidence-based health responses. We engaged supporters from all 435 Congressional districts, who contacted their members of Congress as these policies came under direct attack.

With your support, we:

• Coordinated with allies across the country and across issues, to thwart the worst of the federal funding cuts to health and overdose prevention services. This included cuts to Medicaid – the largest U.S. payer of addiction treatment.
• Developed a public tool to track the billions of dollars in federal funding cuts for drug research, overdose prevention, and drug treatment, and their projected long-term impact. This ensures lawmakers and the general public have factual information on the impacts of these cuts.
• Educated policymakers about effective solutions to substances like fentanyl, such as increasing access to naloxone and medications that reduce opioid overdose risk. These solutions have contributed to the recent overdose death declines of the last three years.
• Released a new report, “From Crisis to Care: Addressing Addiction, Mental Health, and Homelessness Through Health and Supportive Services.” This critical – and timely – resource was viewed by 2,550 advocates, helping them defend proven solutions that promote community health and safety.
• Advanced landmark legislation in California to allow judges to offer treatment instead of incarceration for certain felony drug charges, because we know most Americans see drug use as a health issue, not a crime.

While momentum for marijuana reform continues, the harms of prohibition persist — people can still be denied housing or jobs, even deported, for possession. In 2025, DPA remained the movement’s leader to legalize marijuana with equity and justice at the center, while ensuring good public health — mobilizing 8,949 supporters to take action on marijuana reform nationwide.

Together, we:

• Fought to end federal marijuana criminalization and repair its harms by working with Congress to strengthen and reintroduce the MORE Act. This legislation would clear records, remove housing and employment barriers, expand research, and increase access to medical marijuana.
• Pushed for a fair and inclusive marijuana industry that doesn’t leave people behind. We secured equity-focused amendments to federal cannabis banking legislation and advanced protections for small, independent, and community-based producers.
• Centered public health, racial equity, and accountability in marijuana policy by releasing a major report on lessons learned from state reforms. It offers clear recommendations to protect public health, sustain a justice-oriented approach, and ensure an equitable industry.
• Pressed for full federal descheduling so people are no longer punished for marijuana use. We continued to call on the administration to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act once and for all.

The drug war reaches far beyond arrests — driving family separation, housing instability, and food insecurity. In 2025, DPA worked to dismantle these civil punishments. 

You helped us:

• Advance the RESTORE Act to repeal the cruel ban on food stamps for people with drug convictions – the only type of felony that carries this restriction. We built bipartisan support, and attached the Act to the Farm Bill.
• Launch a campaign to repeal the Thurmond Amendment, which denies housing protections to people with certain drug convictions.
• Provide policy analysis to reproductive justice partners to help prevent the misuse of drug laws to criminalize abortion medications and protect access to essential reproductive care.

As attacks on drug policy reform intensified, DPA invested in research, coalition-building, and long-term strategy to meet this moment. 

In 2025, we:

• Released timely research and toolkits to help advocates respond to federal funding cuts and misinformation.
• Expanded organizing in the South by convening reform leaders from across the region for the first time. Together, we can build shared strategy, strengthen coordination, and accelerate reform in states long harmed by the drug war.
• Called for safety and stability in the U.S., exposing how the drug war is used to fuel international violence while health services are being gutted for Americans at home.
• Hosted the 2025 International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Detroit, bringing together more than 1,600 drug policy advocates to set the agenda for what comes next.
• Engaged more than 4,400 people through online webinars, trainings, and briefings — strengthening a nationwide network of advocates ready to protect health-based solutions and advance reform.