Harm reduction SERMON SERIES

MOBILIZING MORAL IMAGINATION TO END THE WAR ON PEOPLE WHO USE DRUGS

June 17, 2021 marked 50 years since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared drugs to be “public enemy number one,” launching a national campaign to criminalize people who use drugs. Pursuant policies have led to mass incarceration, civil liberties abuses, brutal policing and injustice against people of color, and human rights violations in the U.S. and around the world. Meanwhile, nearly 500,000 people died in the U.S. alone from opioid overdose in from 1999 to 2019, with death rates still accelerating steadily (source: CDC).

To mark this milestone, faith and spiritual leaders across the U.S. acknowledged the 50th anniversary of America’s war on people who use drugs with a series of sermons memorializing the victims of the war on people who use drugs and affirming that they are deserving of life, dignity, and human rights.