Enacted in 1973 under then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller, the Rockefeller Drug Laws mandated extremely harsh prison terms for possession or sale of relatively small amounts of drugs. Although intended to target “kingpins,” most people incarcerated under the laws were convicted of low-level, nonviolent, first-time offenses. The laws marked an unprecedented shift towards addressing drug use and abuse through the criminal justice system instead of through the medical and public health systems.

Marijuana prohibition persists, in large part, because of out-dated, hyperbolic “Reefer Madness” claims about health impacts. The truth is that marijuana is considerably less dangerous than either alcohol or cigarettes.

Sen. David Vitter has recently introduced The Drug Free Families Act of 2011 (S. 83). This legislation would require all new applicants for TANF benefits, and all individuals currently receiving these benefits, to submit to drug testing. This proposed policy is a misguided and punitive waste of resources, and would place unnecessary financial burdens on taxpayers and state and federal budgets in order to enact an ineffective policy.

Legislators, medical professionals, professors and others voice their support for Good Samaritan laws.

In New Jersey, overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death. Almost 6,000 people have died from drug overdoses in New Jersey since 2004. More than 700 people died from drug overdoses in New Jersey in 2009 alone. Opioids were involved in more than 75 percent of drug overdose deaths in New Jersey in 2009. The five counties with the highest numbers of drug overdose deaths are Camden, Essex, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean.