Contact: Johanna Kichton, [email protected], 202.660.0605
WASHINGTON, D.C.—People’s Action today released the following statement by Drug Policy, Harm Reduction, and Criminal Justice Campaign Director Ellen Glover in response to the statement the Biden-Harris Administration released to Congress that recommended further criminalization of fentanyl-related substances:
“On the campaign trail, Biden made promise after promise to end the War on Drugs. It’s personal for him. But it’s also personal for the more than 93,000 families who lost a loved one to a preventable overdose death last year alone. His actions today were merely a recommitment to wage this war, ignore evidence-based solutions, and deny compassion to the people who need it most.
“While President Biden’s statement pays lip service to ending the overdose crisis and investing in public health, his policy recommendations further criminalize fentanyl-related substances and will all but ensure more people will be locked away instead of given support.
“If the Biden administration wanted to save lives, it would listen to the decades of organizing by Black, brown, and poor communities and heed their calls to stop punishing people and instead help them heal by investing in harm reduction and treatment services.”
People’s Action’s Overdose Crisis Cohort has fought to end the extension of the classwide scheduling, and in April urged senators to vote against any extension of the Trump-era class-wide scheduling of fentanyl analogues ban. Just last week, 142 organizations voiced their opposition to further classwide scheduling of fentanyl-related substances in a letter to President Biden and Vice President Harris.
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People’s Action is a national network of 40 state and local grassroots, power-building organizations in 30 states, united in fighting for justice. We operate the largest progressive rural organizing project in the country. People’s Action and its member organizations coordinated one of the biggest distributed organizing programs in rural areas this past election season.