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"The more we escalate the drug war, the more young people and others die." This advertisement observes how drug overdose deaths rise in concert with drug-related incarceration rates.

This advertisement appeared in the National Review, the The New Republic, the Weekly Standard, The Nation, Reason Magazine and The Progressive.

Also available in printer-ready Portable Document Format (PDF).
The more we escalate
the drug war, the more
young people and others die.
Graphs
• October 14, 1982: President Reagan calls for escalation of war on drugs
• Fall, 1984: Drug sentences increase, mandatory sentencing guidelines
• enacted, Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984.
• June 7, 1986: Presidential Directive labels drug trade "a national security
• concern". Authorizes expanded use of military.
“These outcomes may be understood as public
health consequences of policies that criminalize
and marginalize drug users ...”
- Dr. Ernest Drucker, Public Health Reports Jan./Feb. 1999
Visit Drug War Facts at: http://www.drugsense.org/.
Paid for by Common Sense for Drug Policy
Kevin B. Zeese, President
703-354-9050, 703-354-5695 (fax), info@csdp.org
See: Drucker, Ernest, "Drug Prohibition and Public Health," Public Health Reports, (U.S. Public Health Service) Vol. 114, pgs. 14-29 January/February 1999, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1308340/