NORA Is Proposition 5!
The Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act—the most ambitious sentencing and prison reform in U.S. history—just got its proposition number. The measure, sponsored by DPA Network, will appear as Proposition 5 on the California state ballot in November!
The campaign to pass Prop. 5 is building momentum. A range of important groups, including the California Society of Addiction Medicine, the Mental Health Association in California, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the League of Women Voters of California, and the California Democratic Party have endorsed the measure that would implement common-sense solutions to prison overcrowding.
High-profile individuals such as Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, retired warden of San Quentin Jeanne Woodford, Orange County Superior Court Judge Jim Gray, former Police Chief Norm Stamper, and former Probation Chief of San Luis Obispo County, John Lum, have also endorsed Prop. 5.
Support is building across the political spectrum because Prop. 5 will protect public safety and save taxpayers billions of dollars by safely shrinking the size of the nonviolent prison population by tens of thousands within just a few years.
Through Prop. 5, California voters can stop letting addiction drive incarceration in California, stop letting young people with drug problems become adult drug offenders, stop letting petty marijuana possession waste court resources and start saving taxpayers $2.5 billion in just a few years.
Through Prop. 5, young people would have access to treatment for the first time in the state.
Through Prop. 5, tens of thousands of nonviolent offenders would get access to treatment-instead-of-incarceration and rehabilitation programs—a change that would dramatically reduce the number of people locked up unnecessarily and decrease the likelihood of recidivism.
Through Prop. 5, low-level marijuana possession would become an infraction—like a traffic ticket—rather than a misdemeanor, conserving millions of dollars in court resources for more serious cases and saving 40,000 people a year from the life-long burden of a misdemeanor conviction.
Now that NORA is Proposition 5, we are ramping up the campaign. Please become a supporter!
If you would like to get involved, sign up for weekly email updates by emailing the campaign, check out our website, and join our cause on Facebook (Yes on Prop 5!).
Drug Policy Alliance
3 comments:
Colorado has stuck it's head in the sand far too long. We have to remove from political office those state employees and politicians that waste tax dollars. However, the drug addicts must have escalating and severe consequences for rehab dollars going to waste. Less excuses.
What happened to the last effort in this same line of reasoning several years ago? Why did it fail?
mpc
A move forward, yes. However, I support legalizing marijuana. Alcohol is a drug AND a depressant. Alcohol causes more harm in mind, body and soul. It destroys families.
There is something sinister about promoting alcohol and demonizing marijuana. Both have its benefits in moderation. Responsibility can be applied in marijuana use (a natural plant OF THE EARTH), just as moderation in alcohol.
Folks. Isn't it interesting that a product of nature is criminalized while a chemically altered substance like alcohol is trumpeted?
Control. I believe there are some very holistic properties in weed that scares the living *h* in politicians. (Excessive use of booze is good for the medical corporations, eh?) $$$
Legalize not criminalize.
stop focusing on the street user and start prosecuting those bringing the drugs into the country and making the alcohol, stocking the shelves of stores for human degradation.
Post a Comment