Drug Policy Alliance released a first-of-its-kind report Tuesday detailing the numerous drug policy reforms that have taken place around the country in recent years.  The report, ‘State of the States: Drug Policy Reforms, 1996-2002’, found more than 150 changes in state legislation on a range of issues, including: advancing alternatives to incarceration, protecting medical marijuana patients and providers, expanding sterile syringe availability, and restoring benefits and voting rights to former drug offenders.

While the federal government continues to spend billions of dollars on the failed, three-decade-old war on drugs, forty-six states have responded by passing more effective and fiscally-responsible legislation, according to the new report.  Seventeen of these states, including California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont and Washington, have passed three or more pieces of drug policy reform legislation between 1996 and 2002.  The reforms were initiated, sponsored and supported by Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Greens and Independents. 

“The war on drugs may well be the most wasteful use of government resources today,” said Don Murphy, a former Republican state legislator from Maryland who spoke at today’s press conference to release the report.  “As a taxpayer, it's nice to know that Maryland is not alone in embracing more pragmatic approaches.”
 
State of the States: Drug Policy Reforms, 1996-2002 was researched and written by the Drug Policy Alliance, the nation’s leading organization working to end the war on drugs and promote new drug policies based on science, compassion, health and human rights.

The Drug Policy Alliance will soon launch a major campaign focusing on drug policy reform as an important cost-saving measure for states facing financial hardship.  It will include advertising in major media outlets, working with key legislators and organizing activists and concerned citizens around the country.