Elected Officials, Community Members and Civil Rights Groups Demand Racial Equity in New York’s Response to the Heroin and Opioid Crisis

ALBANY, New York — This Wednesday, elected officials, community members, civil rights and legal advocates, and drug policy reformers will join together to call for the inclusion of communities of color in Albany’s response to heroin and opioids. In the midst of the opioid crisis, lawmakers and the media have increasingly highlighted strategies that treat drug use as a public health issue. But despite the rhetoric, the overwhelming emphasis of New York drug policy remains on criminalization, which is disproportionately focused on people of color.

New York, like the rest of the country, has begun to reject criminal justice approaches to drugs amid a perception that more people who use drugs are now from white, suburban, and middle class communities. Amid this trend there has been little effort at the state level to repair the harms of the failed drug policies of the last 45 years that have devastated communities of color. New York’s draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws were a model for other states around the country, and a significant driver of mass incarceration, gross racial disparities, and disruption of New York families and communities.

Speakers will call on the New York State legislature and Governor Cuomo to create policies that will repair the harms associated with the drug war, in addition to ensuring an equitable distribution of public health resources to help all people in need.

WHAT:  Press Conference “Prescription for Everybody’s Pain: Heroin and Communities of Color – A Time for Atonement and Action.”
WHEN:  Wednesday, June 8, 2016, 1pm
WHERE:  Million Dollar Staircase, New York State Capitol
State St. and Washington Ave
Albany, NY 12224
WHO:

• Terrell Jones, Community Leader at VOCAL New York, and Outreach and Advocacy Program Manager at NY Harm Reduction Educators
• Dr. Alice Green, Executive Director, Center for Law and Justice, Albany, NY
• New York State Assembly Member Charles Barron
• New York State Assembly Member Michael Blake
• New York State Assembly Member Crystal Peoples-Stokes (tentative)
• New York State Assembly Member Diana Richardson
• New York State Assembly Member Robert Rodriguez
• New York State Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal
• New York State Senator Ruth Hassel-Thompson
• New York State Senator Kevin Parker
• New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera
• New York State Senator James Sanders
• Kassandra Frederique, New York State Director, Drug Policy Alliance

Legislative policy proposals include:

• Racial and Ethnic Impact Statements to determine legislation’s effects on communities of color before it is enacted
• Statewide clemency package to seal and vacate all marijuana-related convictions
• Reform criminal drug possession statutes to decriminalize or de-felonize certain offenses
• Bolster and expand Rockefeller drug law reforms
• Reduce recidivism and save money by establishing Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) programs
• Create a Statewide Nonfatal Overdose Response System
• Increase funding for harm reduction services and continue their integration with the broader healthcare system
• Repeal the criminal law on syringe possession and increase access syringes through pharmacies
• Rewrite New York’s syringe exchange law to increase the number of providers and reduce barriers to access
• Institute supervised injection facilities (SIFs) wherever needed in the state
• Increase access to the medication-assisted treatment, especially by expanding buprenorphine access in low income communities of color
• Allow access to methadone and buprenorphine in Department of Corrections and Community Supervision facilities
• Establish a New York State Drugs Advisory Council that includes the participation of community experts and the legislature and executive to ensure common objectives and policy coordination between agencies and elected officials