117th CONGRESS 1st Session |
To reform United States drug policy, and for other purposes.
Mrs. Watson Coleman (for herself, Ms. Bush, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Ms. Pressley, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Mr. Espaillat, Ms. Lee of California, Ms. Omar, Mr. Bowman, and Ms. Tlaib) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Energy and Commerce, Oversight and Reform, Financial Services, Transportation and Infrastructure, House Administration, Armed Services, and the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
To reform United States drug policy, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
This Act may be cited as the Drug Policy Reform Act of 2021 or as the DPR Act of 2021 .
Congress finds the following:
(1) For most of the past century the United States has adopted increasingly punitive policies toward the possession, use, and distribution of drugs. Particularly in the last 50 years, the United States has built a massive regime to enforce those policies.
(2) Congress and State legislatures have adopted increasingly harsh sentencing schemes such as mandatory minimums, established far-reaching and oppressive civil sanctions and collateral consequences, approved policies weakening the Fourth Amendment for drug searches and seizures, and fostered incentives for aggressive and militarized policing in the alleged pursuit of drugs.
(3) Every year, there are more than 1.4 million arrests in the United States for drug-related offenses. In over 85 percent of those arrests, drug possession was the most serious offense. Drug arrests disproportionately impact people of color and more commonly occur in historically overpoliced, low-income communities. A criminal record, even for an arrest that did not result in a conviction, has a profound impact on individuals, often interrupting employment, housing, family relationships, child custody, and education.
(4) A health-based approach to drug use and overdose is more effective, humane and cost-effective than criminal punishments. Subjecting people to criminal penalties, stigma, and other lasting collateral consequences because they use drugs is expensive, ruins lives, and can make access to treatment and recovery more difficult.
(5) Despite high numbers of arrests and incarceration in the United States for drug possession, the number and rate of drug-involved overdose deaths has skyrocketed for over 20 years and continues at epidemic levels. In 2019, 70,630 people died by drug overdose in the United States.
(6) Harm reduction services and voluntary, on-demand access to evidence-based substance use disorder treatment have proven highly effective in reducing overdose and the spread of communicable diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C, preventing drug-related injury, and improving health outcomes for people who use drugs. These services should be available on demand to anyone who requests it.
(7) Far too many people who desire treatment face challenges that prevent them from accessing the services they want, including cost barriers, lack of providers, and long wait-lists. On-demand access to evidence-based treatment saves lives, reduces crime, and saves money. Barriers to treatment should be removed or minimized.
(8) Criminalizing drug use and possession reduces the amount of resources available for harm reduction and treatment services and deters people from accessing available services due to fear of arrest.
(9) Punitive policies have achieved no reduction in supplies or prices, but instead have created unnecessarily risky and harmful conditions for people who use drugs.
(10) Punitive policies have led to militarized tactics that thwart the spirit of the constitution and have led to the deaths of countless Black and Brown people. Additionally, the drug war apparatus has cost the Federal Government hundreds of billions of dollars in direct enforcement and incarceration costs, and collateral impacts on the lives of those caught in its path.
(11) While drug decriminalization cannot fully repair our broken and oppressive criminal legal system or the harms of an unregulated drug market, shifting from absolute prohibition to drug decriminalization helps restore individual liberty, protect against some police abuses, better assist those in need, and save tax dollars.
(12) This concept is neither new nor radical. Other nations, including Portugal, have successfully decriminalized personal use quantities of drugs and achieved meaningful improvements in treating problematic drug use and reducing the harms of policing drugs.
(13) In June 2021, the United States will mark the 50th anniversary of Congress enactment of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 801 et seq.), which authorized and launched the harsh drug war policies sought by the Nixon Administration. In this moment, Congress must recognize the failed experiment in prohibition and move the country in a new direction.
It is the sense of Congress that the United States should
(1) refocus its strategies for addressing substance use disorder and dangerous drug use from strategies focused on controlling and punishing unauthorized drug possession to a system that is health focused, evidence-based, and respectful of self-determination;
(2) invest in harm-reduction services and substance use disorder treatment to help prevent overdose and other health risks, and strengthen connections to services that provide foundational social and economic support; and
(3) pursue international treaties that expand flexibility for signatories to enact non-punitive strategies to address the health and safety of people who use drugs, including the decriminalization of the possession, purchase, or cultivation of personal use quantities of drugs.
SEC. 4. Shift regulatory authority.
(a) Authority and criteria for classification of substances. Section 201 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 811) is amended by striking Attorney General and inserting Secretary of Health and Human Services each place it appears.
(b) Removal of exemption of certain drugs. Section 204 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 814) is amended by striking Attorney General and inserting Secretary of Health and Human Services each place it appears.
(1) REPORT TO CONGRESS. Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall jointly develop and submit to the Congress a plan for transferring information necessary to effect the transfer of classification responsibility required under this section.
(2) REPORT TO GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION. Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall transmit to the Administrator of the General Services Administration a report that specifies the property that is specific to the functions to be transferred to the Secretary of Health and Human Services pursuant to this section.
SEC. 5. Eliminate criminal penalties for personal use possession.
(a) In general. Section 404 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 844) is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
(b) Personal use exception. (1) A person possessing or using a controlled substance in an amount no greater than the benchmark amount (determined by the Commission on Substance Use, Health, and Safety established by the Drug Policy Reform Act of 2021) shall not be subject to a criminal or civil penalty under this section.
(2) The suspected possession or use of a controlled substance in an amount no greater than the benchmark amount (determined by the Commission on Substance Use, Health, and Safety established by the Drug Policy Reform Act of 2021) shall not constitute a basis for detaining, searching, arresting, questioning or surveilling any person, or seizing property including, controlled substances and any items used for the ingestion, consumption, preparation, packaging, or storage of a controlled substance.
(3) The suspected possession or use of a controlled substance in an amount no greater than the benchmark amount shall not constitute a basis for any referral to any immigration enforcement agency, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. .
(b) Effective date. The amendment made by subsection (a) shall take effect on the date that is 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(c) Repeal. Section 405 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 844a) is repealed.
SEC. 6. Commission on substance use, health, and safety.
(a) Establishment. Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall establish a Commission on Substance Use, Health, and Safety (hereinafter known as the Commission ).
(A) IN GENERAL. The Commission under paragraph (1) shall determine a benchmark amount for a controlled substance. The Commission shall consist of people with current or past substance use needs and qualified persons in the fields of general and behavioral healthcare, harm reduction, and substance use disorder treatment. Priority shall be given to people who have lived experience with substance use needs the quantity of drug commonly possessed by an individual benchmark personal use supply, for controlled substances.
(B) DUTIES. The Commission shall consider the following in developing the benchmarks under subparagraph (A)
(i) common patterns of use by typical consumers of the drug;
(ii) differences in commonly possessed quantities resulting from factors relating to geography, income, employment, and other related demographic characteristics; and
(iii) differences in commonly possessed quantities resulting from varying modes of use.
(2) REDUCED CRIMINALIZATION. Benchmarks advised by the Commission under subparagraph (A) shall be developed consistent with the intent of this Act to reduce criminalization of personal drug use.
(c) Membership. The Commission under subsection (a) shall be composed of at least 18 members and shall include:
(A) Four individuals who have either used controlled substances or are using controlled substances on the date of the enactment of this Act.
(B) Two members of communities that have been disproportionately impacted by arrests, prosecution or sentencing for drug offenses.
(C) One peer support specialist.
(D) A harm reduction service provider.
(E) A person specializing in housing services for people with substance use needs or mental health needs.
(F) A physician specializing in addiction medicine and with expertise in the treatment of opioid use disorders with methadone or buprenorphine.
(G) A provider of evidence-based substance use disorder treatment.
(H) A provider of evidence-based services for people with co-occurring mental health and substance use needs.
(I) A licensed clinical social worker with expertise in providing intensive case management to people with substance use needs.
(J) A person who works for a nonprofit organization that advocates for persons with substance use needs.
(K) An expert on legal reform who is not a law