The drug war and mass deportation
9 July 2014
Approximately two-thirds of those deported in 2013 were guilty of minor, nonviolent offenses – including thousands deported for nothing more than possessing small quantities of drugs, typically marijuana.
Roughly 40,000 people have been deported for drug law violations every year since 2008. That means that nearly 250,000 – one-quarter of a million – people were deported for nonviolent drug offenses in just the past six years.
No one should be arrested, incarcerated or deported for merely using or possessing drugs – which necessarily entails two major drug law reforms:
- Legalize and regulate marijuana; and
- Stop arresting and criminalizing people for using or possessing everything else.
The PDF below includes the publication in both English and Spanish.
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