This past week marked 50 years since the declaration of the “war on drugs” by President Richard Nixon. After 50 years, all we have to show for this failed war is harm and devastation, disproportionately impacting Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities across the U.S. and right here in New Mexico. Despite the ongoing enforcement of drug use and possession, our state, our communities and our families are still wrestling with addiction, rising overdose deaths, and bearing the increasing costs of using prison and jail time to “treat” substance-use disorders.

In New Mexico, the simple possession of any amount of drugs other than marijuana, including residue found on drug paraphernalia such as a pipe or a spoon, is a fourth-degree felony that can land you in state prison.

When you have a felony record, you are ostracized from the community and have a difficult time accessing any services, such as housing or other social services. It can trap you and your family in a cycle of poverty and discrimination and can lead to higher rates of chronic health issues and substance-use disorder. The doors to higher education are shut and closed to you almost forever. Periods of incarceration can affect a person’s ability to secure and maintain employment. When a person can’t participate in the workforce or provide for themselves and their family, the risk to commit a crime goes up.

A punitive approach has been proven, again and again, not only to be ineffective but to be counterproductive. A punitive approach takes us further from the solutions our communities so desperately need. Punitive measures also disregard the fact that addiction often goes hand in hand with economic insecurity, behavioral health issues such as anxiety and depression, and serious trauma.

Criminalization of drugs ruins lives and makes our communities less safe.

Last year, Oregon voters began to dismantle the drug war by becoming the first state in the U.S. to decriminalize drug use while expanding access to much-needed, evidence-informed, culturally responsive treatment, harm reduction and other health services through excess marijuana tax revenue. This week, the Drug Policy Reform Act

was introduced in Congress, becoming the first federal bill to decriminalize possession while investing in public health options.

A recent poll of New Mexico voters shows there is majority support for eliminating criminal penalties for low-level drug use and possession, 63 percent to 35 percent. Among Democratic and independent voters, support is 89 percent and 72 percent, respectively.

New Mexicans are ready to enact broader, more thoughtful approaches centered around decriminalization of drug use and possession. In 2019, our state Legislature decriminalized drug paraphernalia. Now we need to take the next step.

The Drug Policy Alliance offers a framework on how to dismantle the drug war at a state level by shifting from a criminal legal system response to a public health approach. Rather than continue the failed punitive policies of the past, we are calling on our local and state elected officials to embrace an evidence-based, public health approach to drug activity.

It’s time to end the racist drug war, repair the harms and build a world without it. Decriminalizing drugs is the most important step we must take right now to do it.

A recent poll of New Mexico voters shows there is majority support for eliminating criminal penalties for low-level drug use and possession, 63 percent to 35 percent.