drug policy

11.29.17

Giving Tuesday Reflections

By Celina Coming

The 5th annual #GivingTuesday has come and gone but our gratitude for all of you will last much longer than the 24-hour, social media movement. It’s been a wild year of defending civil liberties whether it be fighting Ohio’s illegal voter purge, lobbying against abortion bans introduced in the Ohio General Assembly, suing police departments that use unconstitutional force, or advocating to change Ohio’s discriminatory birth certificate policy, we’ve been hard at work, and there’s no one we’d rather start 2018 with than you.

10.13.17

Ohio: Misusing the Inducing Panic Law One Overdose At A Time

By Mike Brickner

Cities across the state are using an old philosophy to address the current opioid crisis: charge drug addicts with a crime. Specifically in Ohio, cities are charging overdose victims with inducing panic, which includes a first degree misdemeanor, up to 180 days in jail and a $1000 fine.

08.03.17

Jeff Sessions is Dead Wrong on Drug Policy, and He May Cost People Their Lives

By Mike Brickner

Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke in Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday to discuss the opioid epidemic both on the state and national level. It is no exaggeration to call it an epidemic. In 2016 alone, over 4100 Ohioans died from opioid overdoses, marking a 36% increase from 2015’s record-breaking number.

07.13.17

Heartless in the Heartland: Opioids and Overdoses

By Mike Brickner

Once again, Ohio is at the heart of it all. There is perhaps nowhere in the nation grappling with the opioid crisis as much as the Buckeye State. In fact, leaders recently filed a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies, alleging they were misleading the public about the addictiveness of painkillers.

04.12.17

Ohio City Says “Yes” to Arrests, “No” to Stopping Overdose Deaths

By James Kosmatka

The only good thing about Washington Court House arresting naloxone-revived opioid users is that it shows everything wrong with criminal justice today. Since February, this town nestled between Columbus and Cincinnati has been charging overdose victims with “Inducing Panic” after emergency responders revive them.

02.10.17

Packing Prisons Hurts All Ohioans

By Katrice Williams

On Friday, January 27, ACLU of Ohio senior policy director Mike Brickner spoke to participants at a symposium on criminal justice reform, which was held at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Brickner touched on a familiar but too often ignored problem: Ohio’s growing prison population.

10.18.16

Every 25 Seconds: The Human Toll of Criminalizing Drug Use in the United States

By Mike Uth

The American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch recently released a startling and heart-breaking report on the drug war called Every 25 Seconds: The Human Toll of Criminalizing Drug Use in the United States. The title’s “25 seconds” refers to the frequency of drug possession arrests in the United States—not selling or making drugs, simply the act of having a drug or, sometimes, merely drug residue.

02.16.16

Treat heroin with heroin, as Swiss have done

By Mike Uth

Beginning in the 1970’s, Switzerland faced a surge in heroin abuse much like the one we are seeing now in Ohio. Then, as now, the surge devastated families and communities, and was accompanied by increased crime, homelessness, overdose deaths and increased rates of HIV infection.

10.27.15

A Fresh Start to Save Thousands of Ohioans’ Futures

By Shakyra Diaz

A criminal conviction damages a person’s present life and future prospects. From employment to housing, higher education enrollment and student loans, a criminal conviction creates so many barriers to opportunities. Given those startling facts, we can agree that a state prison system operating at 130 percent capacity is unhealthy for those incarcerated and for the state that put them there.

10.15.15

A Fresh Start is Needed for Those Left Behind

By Kimberly Millhoan

With early voting now underway in Ohio, the potential that marijuana may be legalized remains the hottest political topic in our state. With Colorado reporting sales of $100 million in just the last month, it’s ensured that legalization will remain on peoples’ minds here and everywhere else.

10.02.15

Decriminalization Doesn’t Do the Whole Job

By Shakyra Diaz

Michael is 23, African-American and incarcerated because he was caught with a bag of marijuana. Now he’s a “repeat offender” because of a similar arrest years ago. He’s lost his job, freedoms, college plans, perhaps his shot at any decent future.

09.25.15

Issue 3: Now’s the Time to Legalize Marijuana

By Adrienne Gavula

Almost 40 years ago, long before the issue took off around the country, Ohio legislators decriminalized the possession of marijuana up to 100 grams, a not insignificant amount. This was welcome progress, and the hope was lawmakers and police across Ohio would soon focus their attention elsewhere.

09.04.15

Time for Voters in Toledo to Get Sensible about Marijuana

By Steve David

If you live in Ohio and are inclined to follow political news and developments, you are already aware voters will be asked in November whether or not they favor legalizing marijuana in Ohio.

What you probably do not know is Toledo voters have a similar issue on their citywide ballot. 

07.14.15

A Day in Drug Court

By Shakyra Diaz

Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Drug Court with fellow ACLU intern, Kyra Schoonover. It certainly was an eye-opening experience for both of us.

How It Works

Before the proceedings began, we met with the judge.

05.08.15

Drug Testing Welfare Recipients Creates, Not Solves, Problems

By Shakyra Diaz

If you spend enough time at the Ohio Statehouse you quickly learn bad ideas have a habit of never going away.

Such is the case with the drug-testing of welfare recipients. Legislation to accomplish this has been introduced in previous legislative sessions, but stalled for unknown reasons.

11.20.14

Drug Law Reforms: Ohio Pay Attention!

By Shakyra Diaz

Imagine what would happen if people of different walks of life decided that they were done with the insanity of mass incarceration and the War on Drugs. Imagine if people proclaimed that they were tired of:

» Criminalizing people unnecessarily.

» Tough on crime laws that do nothing to improve safety.

10.01.14

Treating Our Addiction to Mass Criminalization

By Shakyra Diaz

“The United States will never be able to prosecute or incarcerate its way to being a safer nation,” said last week U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, at a conference held by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

08.16.13

Real Criminal Justice Reform Starts Now

By Nick Worner

In his August 12 speech to the American Bar Association, United States Attorney General Eric Holder did not mince words on the problem of mass incarceration, calling it both a moral and economic failure.

More importantly, he proposed some important changes to reduce the U.S.