A bill co-sponsored by Democrat Congresswoman Cori Bush would federally decriminalize possession of all illicit drugs and eventually lead to a new stream of tax revenue if states were to follow suit, according to a Kansas City attorney.
“It's very bold,” said Barry Grissom, a former federal prosecutor from 2010 to 2016. “This takes a lot of courage because obviously there will be lots of pushback from the war on drugs, the institutions that have grown up around that, and the attitudes that are very pervasive in law enforcement as opposed to taking the approach that the government should control and manage illicit drugs, which removes it out of the portfolio of the cartels.”
Known as the Drug Policy Reform Act (DPRA), the bill was written with the assistance of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), according to media reports.
“It's very analogous to what we tried to do with prohibiting alcohol, which was an abject failure because it gave rise to organized crime and Al Capone,” Grissom told the St. Louis Record. “The same can be said for other kinds of drugs.”
The Verge reported that DPRA would stop criminal penalties being imposed on users, seal criminal records related to drugs, and put the Secretary of Health and Human Services in charge of regulation so that using illicit drugs is treated as a health issue and not a crime.
“Drugs are not evil in and of itself,” Grissom said. “It's like any intoxicant. It depends on how it's used and if it's regulated, comes to market and we make sure the product is safe so we don't have ill effects from it, it can become tax revenue. We can then put that money to use to help users who have a dependency problem.”
As previously reported, if the bill is approved, people who are discovered personally using illicit drugs would no longer be imprisoned and a fine would be waived if they could not afford to pay court-imposed fines.
“To imprison someone, to deprive them of their liberty or to deprive them of their property because they use, own or possess something that's prohibited flies in the face of who we were supposed to be as Americans, which is independent-minded people who can make up their own mind about what we want to do as long as we're not hurting anybody,” Grissom said.
Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) co-sponsored the legislation with Bush.
“Growing up in St. Louis, I saw the crack-cocaine epidemic rob my community of so many lives,” said Bush in a statement online. “I lived through a malicious marijuana war that saw Black people arrested for possession at three times the rate of their white counterparts, even though usage rates are similar. As a nurse, I’ve watched Black families criminalized for heroin use while white families are treated for opioid use. And now, as a Congresswoman, I am seeing the pattern repeat itself with fentanyl, as the DEA presses for an expanded classification that would criminalize possession and use."
Some 83% of American voters believe the War on Drugs has failed and 66% are in favor of removing criminal penalties for drugs and replacing them with health-centered approaches, according to a poll by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and DPA.
“I don't think drug use will increase if the bill is approved,” Grissom said. “I think what the bill will do is provide a tax revenue base. It's going to provide a safe product. The product will be monitored and regulated by the government so that we can take crime and criminals out of the equation. It is a smart move from a public policy standpoint.”