United, by Cory Booker: on Drugs

Staged sit-in at urban housing to disrupt drug trade

My response was to explain to her over and over again that I didn't know what to do. "We elected you, Cory. If you can't help, then why did we elect you?"

Give addicts treatment instead of long sentences

We are also coming to realize how essential it is to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline--the ridiculous policies that have criminalized kids instead of nurturing them, helping them, & healing them. There is a growing body of research that shows we can lower crime rates by better dealing with childhood trauma and investing in policies such as Nurse-Family Partnerships, where at-risk mothers get home nurse visits that are proven to reduce the cost to taxpayers of everything from kids' emergency room visits to teens' encounters with the police.

Drug war isn't waged in privileged communities

The war on drugs has turned out to be a war on PEOPLE--and far too often a war on people of color and the poor. Marijuana use, for example, is roughly equal among blacks and whites, yet blacks are 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for possession than whites.

Further, there is no difference between blacks and whites in dealing drugs. In fact, some studies show that whites are more likely than blacks to sell drugs, even though blacks are far more likely to be arrested for it.