Addressing Louisiana Policy from a Harm Reduction Standpoint
Women With a Vision, Inc., New Orleans Trystereo Syringe Distribution, and No Overdose Baton Rouge are Louisiana-based organizations that support people who are currently using drugs and want to be safer about their drug use. We’re harm reductionists: we help our participants reduce the harms of drug use, such as physical injury, overdose, and the transmission of HIV and hepatitis. All of our organizations daily provide harm reduction, health education, and syringe exchange services to people struggling with safer drug use and drug addictions within our community. Through our work, drug users are able to take more control over their own safety and wellness, and that of their communities. We work with families and friends of drug users, who want to see their loved ones safe and their quality of life improved.
Working in harm reduction, we often bear witness to the complexities of drug users’ lives; we hear and listen to their stories of survival. We understand that drug use alone does not tell the complete story of how a drug user struggles to survive in our society. Social and political context can lend more insight: For example, users of heroin and other street drugs are often at the very bottom of Louisiana’s unequal income distribution. Many face significant barriers to addiction treatment and other healthcare services. They often have a tenuous connection to stable housing, employment, and food access. The illicit nature of street drugs often puts the user in harm’s way, inviting more interaction with unhealthy environmental conditions, violence, and police surveillance. Street drugs are also unregulated in potency, which can produce unintended dangerous consequences for the user.
The 40-year trend of harsh drug sentencing laws has resulted in the fact that most people in prison are convicted of low-level drug crimes. Mandatory minimum sentences imposed on drug possession charges, severe sentencing for drug-related robberies, and harsh surveillance of communities of color and the poor have fueled a massive prison population boom in our country. Because people who use drugs have few evidence-based treatment options for addressing their mental health and addiction issues, incarceration can yield additional harm to their emotional and physical well being, such as the trauma of painful withdrawal symptoms and untreated psychological conditions. Meanwhile, formerly-incarcerated people face barriers to employment, housing, and many other integral components of successfully re-entering society.
Fortunately, on the federal level, drug policy is seeing a major overhaul: In a speech before the U.S. Sentencing Committee last May, Attorney General Eric Holder stated that America’s “reliance on incarceration is not just financially unsustainable – it comes with human and moral costs that are impossible to calculate.”
Some states have begun addressing drug use by eliminating mandatory minimum sentences. This provides states with the opportunity to reinvest the money spent on police, prisons, jails, and courts toward mental health treatment, jobs, housing, quality schools, parks, and youth development programs. Several states, most recently Georgia, have passed 911 Good Samaritan laws, which encourage witnesses to an overdose to call emergency services and save a life without fear of repercussions. States are also offering greater access to naloxone, a prescription drug commonly administered by emergency room doctors to reverse the effects of opioid-related drug overdoses, including heroin and prescription painkillers. Currently the drug is available only by prescription, but several states have loosened the normal restrictions on such drugs to allow providers to prescribe naloxone to third parties, such as harm reduction organizations, family members, or friends of drug users.
Louisiana, though, has a long way to go. With one in 55 people currently in jail or prison, Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the world, yet drugs are cheaper and more widely available than before the War on Drugs began. As a result, Louisiana’s fatal overdose rates are among the highest in the nation. The last national study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 15 people per 100,000 people die of overdose yearly in the state of Louisiana.
There is a critical need in Louisiana for expanded drug-addiction treatment programs, services, and facilities; sentencing reform to keep non-violent people out of prison; Good Samaritan legislation and expanded naloxone access laws; and re-entry rehabilitation programs so that formerly-incarcerated people do not return to jail.
For safer and healthier communities, these efforts are common sense. But there is much to be done to move Louisiana toward life-saving laws and policies. Our organizations are working to address some of the harmful consequences of national, state, and local drug policy, working with community members and families to promote solutions that could save lives. But we need your help. Join us in calling for legislative action to save lives!
The following are Louisiana State Senate and House Bills that address Louisiana’s critical need for sensible drug policy. All of the bills have been or are currently up for vote this session. Please tell your representative how you feel about these issues and bills: use the tool below to determine the contact information for your State Senator and Representative and let them know you want them to support laws and policies that promote better access to healthcare, harm reduction, and human rights.
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Bills to support:
Bills that address access to healthcare:
SB 96 by Sen. Nevers would put a constitutional amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot asking voters to accept the $16 billion expansion of Medicaid provided under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The amendment would direct Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals to file everything necessary by Jan. 1, 2015, to receive the federal funding to provide Medicaid to residents who are at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty rate. Killed in Committee as of 4/23/2014
Bills that address overdose fatalities:
SB 422 by Sen. Sharon Broome, D-Baton Rouge, would provide immunity for rendering assistance in medical emergencies involving alcohol consumption or drug overdose; also known as 911 Good Samaritan legislation. Passed through Senate and House Committee, scheduled for the House floor, 5/15/2014
HB 754 by Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, would authorize first responders to carry naloxone, an opiate-antagonist that is used to reverse drug overdose. Passed House, referred to Senate legislative Bureau as of 5/8/2014
HB 755 by Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, would authorize the administration of naloxone by a third party. This bill would also provide immunity for rendering assistance in a medical emergency involving naloxone. Not gaining traction in House
Bills that address the issues of mass incarceration:
HB 14 by Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans, would lessen penalties for simple marijuana possession. Legislation pulled as of 4/3/2014
HB 790 by Rep. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, would allow parishes to permit people who have been arrested for certain offenses to be released on a cash deposit in lieu of bond.
HB 680 by Rep. Jackson would raise the bar for charging certain thefts as felonies.
SB 277 by Sen. Jonathan Perry, R-Kaplan, would clarify the state’s drunk driving law. Passed through Senate and House Committee, scheduled for the House floor, 5/15/2014
SB 532 by Sen. Ellery Guillory, R-Opelousas, would create courts to adjudicate cases involving veterans involving drugs and alcohol as is done in drug court. Passed through Senate, referred to Committee of House and Governmental Affairs, as of 5/5/2014
SB 398 by Sen. Fred Mills Jr., R-New Iberia, would permit more drug felons to participate in drug court programs. Passed through Senate, in 3rd reading at House Committee, as of 5/6/2014
SB 256 by Sen. Mills would eliminate mandatory minimum sentences and benefit restrictions for certain drug convictions.
SB 275 by Sen. Mills would eliminate the crime of drug traffic loitering, which the state Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional. In Committee as of 2/26/2014
SB 257 by Sen. Mills would create a misdemeanor charge for first time offenders who purchase or transport supplies for the operation of a clandestine drug lab.
HB 16 by Rep. Terry Landry, D-New Iberia, would authorize the 15th Judicial District Court (Lafayette) to establish a special court to rehabilitate certain incarcerated inmates to re-enter civil society. Signed into law, effective date 8/1/2014
HB 732 by Rep. Jackson would authorize the waiver of minimum mandatory sentences for certain crimes of violence. Passed House, referred to Senate Committee as of 4/15/2014
HB 745 by Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans, would allow judges to waive minimum mandatory sentences in certain instances.
SB 383 by Sen. Eric LaFleur, D-Ville Platte, would expand parole eligibility for certain non-violent crimes. Signed by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House as of 5/8/2014
HB 731 by Rep. Jackson would create a procedure for designating certain crimes in the court minutes as a crime of violence, which would increase access to parole eligibility and the benefit of first technical violation for people who are convicted of a crime of violence and increases access to deferral of sentences, drug division probation programs, reentry prep programs, community resource center programs, and rehabilitation and workforce development programs for non-violent drug offenders.
SB 472 by Sen. Mills would raise the education and experience standards for the Parole Committee and include psychiatry and psychology as among the fields of experience for Parole Committee members. Passed Senate, passed House Committee, scheduled for House floor debate 5/15 /2014
HB 210 by Rep. Patrick Jefferson, D-Homer, would expand eligibility for medical parole. Passed House and Senate, scheduled for concurrence in House 5/13/2014
SB 240 by Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, would require state Supreme Court and appeals court clerks of court to transmit rulings to local clerks of court and the Department of Corrections. Passed Senate, read 3rd time in House Committee as of 5/8/2014
SB 323 rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 22, would have reduced penalties for marijuana possession, capping fines at $100 and jail time at 6 months per offense. All marijuana possession charges would have been treated as misdemeanors.
Bills to oppose:
HB 332 by Rep. Joe Lopinto, R-Metairie, would increase penalties for possession and distribution of scheduled drugs, doubling the current five-year sentence for distribution and putting users in jail for a minimum of two years for possession. Passed through House, passed through Senate, and referred to Legislative Bureau, returned to Senate calendar as of 4/30/2014
SB 87 by Sen. Dan Claitor, R-Baton Rouge, would increase the maximum term of imprisonment for possession or distribution of heroin to 99 years. Passed through Senate, passed House Committee, and scheduled for House floor debate 5/15/2014
HB 1158 by Rep. Austin Badon, D-New Orleans, would increase penalties for solicitation, whether it is panhandling, hitch-hiking, or sex work. Passed through House, at 3rd and final reading in the Senate as off 5/8/2014
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