2021 Global Day of Action: Undoing the ‘war’, building the future that our communities have always deserved
2021 Global Day of Action: Undoing the ‘war’, building the future that our communities have always deserved
50 years ago, the government of the United States launched a ‘war on drugs’ that would tragically define the decades to come.
The idea that the challenges posed by drugs could be addressed through an ‘all-out offensive’ spread like wildfire across the globe, primed by international agreements produced against the backdrop of political expediency and bigotry, rather than evidence and empathy.
The consequences have been devastating. Some of them can be counted in the millions who have been arrested, incarcerated, and lost prematurely to wholly preventable deaths. But most of the impacts, reflected in personal stories of pain, trauma, and exclusion, cannot be reduced to numbers.
Every year, on 26 June, the Support. Don’t Punish campaign mobilises in reaction to this violence and this loss, to build sustainable alternatives that end cycles of punishment and marginalisation, and rather advance our communities’ health, human rights and well-being. (supportdontpunish.org, 2021)