How NY Can Become National Model by Shifting Drug Policy from Criminalization to Public Health

The New York Academy of Medicine | Drug Policy Alliance

For Immediate Release: April 19, 2013

Teleconference: How New York Can Become National Model by Shifting Drug Policy from a Criminalization-Based to a Public Health-Based Approach

Blueprint Report Brings Stakeholders to the Table: Elected Officials, Criminal Justice Representatives, Treatment Providers, Drug Users and Policymakers

Governor Cuomo Has an Opportunity to Take Strong Leadership: Despite 2009 Reforms, 40 Years After Rockefeller Drug Laws, Policies Remain Uncoordinated and Contradictory

What: Press Teleconference about the Blueprint for a Public Health and Safety Approach to Drug Policy When: Tuesday, April 23, 2013 11 a.m. EST / 8 a.m. PST Who: Senator Jeffrey D. Klein - TEMPORARY PRESIDENT AND IDC COALITION LEADER (invited) Assemblyman Karim Camara - Chair of the Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus (invited) David Soares, Albany County District Attorney (confirmed) Dr. Ruth Finkelstein, Senior Vice President for Policy and Planning NYAM (confirmed) gabriel sayegh, New York State Director, DPA (confirmed) Evergreen Association, provider of treatment, health, and harm reduction services in Buffalo (invited) New Yorker from Long Island who can speak from personal experiences (confirmed) Community based organization in Buffalo (invited)

Location: 1-800-311-9402 Passcode: Blueprint

Blueprint report and executive summary available on demand. Please contact Andrew Martin : 212-82323-7285 or Tony Newman ( 646-335-5384)

Newswise New York A comprehensive new report, Blueprint for a Public Health and Safety Approach to Drug Policy, by The New York Academy of Medicine and the Drug Policy Alliance presents wide-ranging recommendations to implement a public health-based approach to drug policy, calling for strong, effective leadership to make change. The report demonstrates how New Yorks drug policies remain split between two different and often contradictory approaches criminalization and public health despite the historic 2009 reforms of the punitive Rockefeller Drug Laws.

The report is being issued almost 40 years to the day after Governor Nelson Rockefeller signed the Rockefeller Drug Laws, which exemplified the lock-them-up-and-throw-away-the-key approach that was adopted nationwide in the ensuing decades, leading the U.S. to incarcerate more of its own citizens than any other country in the world. The report describes in detail how the state can once again be a model for the nation, this time for a more equitable, cost-effective, and evidence-based approach.

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How NY Can Become National Model by Shifting Drug Policy from Criminalization to Public Health