1. Niamh Eastwood Executive Director Release
The War on Drugs is a war on people (unless you are rich and white)
Niamh Eastwood Executive Director Release

10. Portugal decriminalised all drugs in 2001 & invested in public health
Decrease in use amongst vulnerable groups including problematic users
Decrease in the number of young people becoming dependent on harder drugs such as heroin
Decrease (over 40%) of the estimated numbers of injecting drug users
Increase in the number of drug-dependent individuals entering treatment
Significant decrease in the number of drug-related deaths
Increased investment in harm-reduction services
Decrease in prison population
Improved relationship between the community and police
Cost-benefit saving: 18 per cent decrease in social cost of drugs in first ten years of decriminalisation. (See: A social cost perspective in the wake of the Portuguese strategy for the fight against drugs - Gonçalves, Ricardo [2015])

12. Czech Republic decriminalised all drugs in 2010
In 2002 Czech Rep academics undertook cost benefit analysis of criminal justice approach:
Penalisation of drug use had not affected the availability of illicit drugs;
There was an increase in the levels of drug use within the country;
The social costs of illicit drug use increased significantly.
Czech Republic decriminalised all drugs in 2010

13. Social consequences of criminalisation
Australia (3 states have decriminalised cannabis possession) & have shown a capacity to keep individuals out of the criminal justice system. A comparative study showed individuals who were given criminal penalties suffered:
Negative employment, relationship and accommodation consequences
Increased likelihood of further contact with criminal justice system

15. End criminalisation, reduce HIV
Criminalising and marginalising people for their drug use contributes to risky behaviours, thereby increasing the spread of HIV
To reach our goal of ending the AIDS crisis by 2030, we must:
Put a stop to the extrajudicial killing of people for alleged drug offences
End the “Othering” of certain ethnic groups and minorities in the name of drug prohibition
End the mass incarceration of people for drug offences
End police surveillance of people for drug use, which disproportionately affects poor people and people of colour