We are happy to spread the news: Yesterday, June 27, 2017, the RISE Act (SB180 authored by Senator Holly Mitchell and Ricardo Lara) passed the California Assembly Public Safety Committee! After more than forty-five years of the War on Drugs, California is one step closer to passing legislation that moves toward undoing some of the harms caused by this attack on low income communities of color.
In June of 1971, President Nixon declared drug abuse “public enemy number one” causing soaring arrest rates that deliberately targeted Black people. Nixon dramatically increased the size and presence of federal drug control agencies and pushed through measures like mandatory sentencing and no-knock warrants. In the 1980s, during the height of the drug war hysteria, the number of arrests for all crimes had risen by 28%, while the number of arrests for drug offenses rose 126%.