ORGANIZATIONS TO SUPPORT

Sonoran Prevention Works
SPW is a grassroots group working to reduce vulnerabilities faced by individuals and communities impacted by drug use in Arizona.


National Harm Reduction Coalition
National Harm Reduction Coalition creates spaces for dialogue and action that help heal the harms caused by racialized drug policies.


Drug Policy Alliance
The Drug Policy Alliance’s mission is to advance those policies and attitudes that best reduce the harms of both drug use and drug prohibition, and to promote the sovereignty of individuals over their minds and bodies.


Find your local harm reductionists
If you live in the US, you can use this tool created by the National Harm Reduction Coalition to find your local harm reduction organization -- if you can’t find one near you, why not start one? Harm reduction is always a grassroots project, founded by and for people who use drugs.

THINGS TO READ

Buy these books if you can, or find them on at the linked free sources, but please always try to support the authors whenever possible. If you would like to read a book on your computer but are having trouble, we recommend using calibre, a FOSS library application.


Are Prisons Obsolete?
by Angela Y. Davis
Read for free here(pdf) here(epub) or here(borrow)
or purchase at your local radical bookstore or online


Drug Use for Grown-Ups
by Dr. Carl Hart
Read for free here(epub)
Buy from Dr. Carl Hart
or purchase at your local radical bookstore or online


High Price
by Dr. Carl Hart
Read for free here(epub)
Buy from Dr. Carl Hart
or purchase at your local radical bookstore or online


Drug War Capitalism
by Dawn Paley
Read for free here(epub) or here(borrow)
Buy directly from AK Press
or purchase at your local radical bookstore


Dark Alliance
by Gary Webb
Read for free here(epub) or here(borrow)
or purchase at your local radical bookstore or online


The War on Drugs and the Global Colour Line
Edited by Kojo Karam
Read for free here(epub) or here(pdf)
Buy directly from Pluto Press
or purchase at your local radical bookstore


The New Jim Crow
by Michelle Alexander
Read for free here(epub) or here(pdf)
Buy directly from the New Press
or purchase at your local radical bookstore or online

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

"The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) serves a counterinsurgent role both defensively and offensively. It retaliates fiercely against political prisoners for the actions they have taken in the pursuit of liberation struggles, and separates them from the movements they contribute to, thereby weakening the movement. It also prevents insurgency by controlling the most oppressed members of society, those with the most to gain from revolutionary change."
- Empie & Bartholow (Raze the walls)


"Most of those who believe that the War on Drugs is destructive, un- winnable and morally wrong, tend to blame an almost universal ignorance on the part of lawmakers, as well as most of the general public, about drugs in general and most particularly about the psychedelics and their appropriate uses in psychotherapy and spiritual exploration. It is also possible to blame the extraordinarily lucrative industries that have grown in response to the needs of the drug-war: urine testing, prison-building and maintenance and expansion of military power, among others."
- Alexander & Ann Shulgin (Tihkal, Book 1: the Story Continues) 


"Louisiana first privatized its penitentiary in 1844, just nine years after it opened. The company, McHatton, Pratt, and Ward ran it as a factory, using inmates to produce cheap clothes for enslaved people. One prisoner wrote in his memoir that, as soon as the prison was privatized, his jailers 'laid aside all objects of reformation and re-instated the most cruel tyranny, to eke out the dollar and cents of human misery.'"
- Shane Bauer (The True Story of America's Private Prison Industry)


“The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by criminal laws.”
- Corrections Corporation of America 2011 10-K

"The substitution of one psychoactive substance for another with the goal of reducing negative outcomes can be included within the framework of harm reduction. Medical cannabis patients have been engaging in substitution by using cannabis as an alternative to alcohol, prescription and illicit drugs."
- Amanda Reiman (Cannabis as a substitute for alcohol and other drugs)

"Colombia is generally looked upon by pro-drug war hawks as a success story, even though little has changed in terms of the amount of coca produced there. But as we shall see, Colombia has become the sandbox for how non-state armed actors can serve to control dissent and conquer territory. Seen in this light, it becomes easier to understand how the drug war facilitates the continuation of a capitalist economic model predicated on security, in part by creating a public discourse that allows increased state militarization on the pretext of implementing security measures to protect civilians int he face of heinous acts carried out by criminal groups."
- Dawn Paley (Drug War Capitalism)

"when thinking about which arenas and institutions produce and maintain racial disparities in the contemporary era, the co-currency of the emergence of international drug prohibition legislation and the legislation that, formally at least, dismantled the colonized/racialized global order provides an insight into how the problem of the colour line persists within the ostensibly post-racial/post-colonial world. "
- Kojo Koram (The War on Drugs and the Global Colour Line)

EVEN FURTHER READING

ITEM INFO

DEA Items
Design by Abolish Everything in collaboration with Hamilton Morris

The DEA has a sordid history, much like that of the CIA and the FBI, or really any of the three-letter agencies. Though perhaps not as widely recognized as the abuses of the latter two organizations, the DEA has participated in both domestic and international violence. The DEA is responsible for enforcing the Controlled Substances Act, which provides the legal basis for classification of illicit substances. This means that the DEA is effectively responsible for all drug related investigations by the state, domestically and abroad. The DEA works with local and other federal agencies to pursue anyone in the business of illicit drugs, from traffickers to street level dealers.

So why say the DEA is a terrorist organization?

To answer this, we have to start by understand what terrorism really is. Merriam-Webster defines terrorism as "the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.”¹ Merriam-Webster then defines terror as "violence or the threat of violence used as a weapon of intimidation or coercion, especially : violent or destructive acts (such as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands."² This definition gets at the heart of the matter, the DEA uses violence and destructive acts to intimidate a population or government into granting their demands. Like all law enforcement, violence is the primary function of the DEA. Below are a few examples of DEA terrorist tactics. Keep in mind that due to the enormous power and control at the state's disposal, these citations are a selection from the few incidents about which we know. There are almost certainly many more that we are unaware of.

• The DEA, and its associated local task-force operations, kill Americans with impunity.
  
  • In 1992, a Texas Narcotics interdiction officer shot and killed 84-year-old Annie Rae Dixon, who was paraplegic and bedridden with pneumonia. The narcotics team was raiding her house on the advice of an informant who claimed to have bought crack from her granddaughter.³
  • In 1998, officers killed Pedro Oregon Navarro in a botched narcotics raid on his home. Navarro was 22, and a father of two. The police raided his home on suspicion of drug sales, but found no drugs in the home or in post-mortem blood tests run on his body. The assailants claimed that Navarro had fired shots, but ballistics tests proved that the only rounds fired were the 30 fired by officers.⁴
  • In 1999, a narcotics unit in El Monte, CA murdered 65-year-old Mario Paz during a raid on his home. They found no narcotics and later admitted to knowing that the family was not involved in drugs.⁵
  • In 2004, narcotics agent Michael Walker shot and killed Rodolfo Cardenas. Plainclothes narcotics agents chased Cardenas, mistaking him for someone else. As he fled on foot, not realizing they were police, Rudy was shot in the back by Walker.⁶
  • In 2009, Pastor Jonathan Ayers was murdered by drug enforcement agents after he dropped a parishioner at the hotel she was living out of. He had given her money to help her pay rent, as she was soon to be evicted. The agents treated that as reason enough to suspect his involvement in illicit drug use and subsequently kill him.⁷ 
  • There are many more examples of wrongful deaths at the hands of DEA and associated agencies, these are just a few. It's worth noting that while the people listed here were all innocent, the murder of people who are guilty of narcotics offenses is also inexcusable. Too often discussions of inequity in the War on Drugs are centered on innocent victims, but those who are "guilty" do not deserve death anymore than anyone else. That being said, data is more widely available about innocent victims because routine death at the hands of law enforcement is not considered newsworthy by most.

• The DEA assaults, batters, threatens and murders children.
  
  • In 1992, DEA wrongfully raided the home of Gracia Figuero and held her children at gunpoint. They found no contraband.⁸
  • 14-year-old Ashley Villareal was killed by DEA agents while moving the family car on her block. They surrounded the car and fired on it from unmarked vehicles, striking and killing Ashley. The DEA was surveilling her home because of her father's suspected involvement in minor cocaine offenses.^9,10
  • In 2007, the DEA raided the wrong home and held an 11 year old and 14 year old at gunpoint, handcuffed them and then released them.¹¹
  • Also in 2007, a botched drug raid resulted in agents shooting a 1-year-old in the hand and killing the child's mother, Tanika Wilson, 26. Wilson was a mother of six. No drugs were found in the home.¹²

• The DEA murders, harasses, terrorizes and polices citizens of other countries with impunity and without repercussions.
  
  • The DEA murdered Honduran citizens in several separate incidents in 2012.^{12,13,14,15,16}
  • The DEA subsequently lied to cover up these murders.^17,18
  • In 2008, Bolivian president Evo Morales suspended the operations of the DEA in Bolivia, citing the DEA's role in fomenting unrest and riots which resulted in at least 30 deaths in one province. The violence was in regions which are home to traditional coca cultivation and, unsurprisingly, natural gas reserves.¹⁹

• The DEA pays informants to lie in order to bolster its cases and justify its existence.²⁰
• The DEA conducts widespread surveillance of American people, in conjunction with the CIA, FBI, NSA, IRS, DHS and local law enforcement agencies (LEAs).²¹
• The DEA steals billions in assets and cash ^22,23 and it knows this is wrong.²⁴

---

1. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terrorism
   
2. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terror
3. https://web.archive.org/web/20210119092334/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/raid-of-the-day-annie-rae_n_2615079
4. https://web.archive.org/web/20190629142524/https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/064/navarro.shtmll
5. https://web.archive.org/web/20210501231515/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-aug-28-mn-4413-story.html
6. https://web.archive.org/web/20210418001458/http://www.november.org/stayinfo/breaking2/Cardenas.html
7. https://web.archive.org/web/20210803105527/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/02/23/jury-awards-more-than-2-million-to-family-of-pastor-killed-by-narcotics-task-force/
8. https://www.druglibrary.org/think/~jnr/botched.htm
9. https://web.archive.org/web/20180731132652/https://www.mrt.com/news/article/Teen-killed-by-DEA-agent-buried-in-San-Antonio-7813044.php
10. https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2003/02/18/15756461.php
11. https://web.archive.org/web/20210225170109/https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2012/06/12/11-55004.pdf
12. https://web.archive.org/web/20210507015216/https://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy/2008/jan/07/swat_team_shoots_baby_kills_mom
13. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/25/world/americas/dea-agents-kills-suspected-smuggler-in-honduran-drug-raid.html?_r=0
14. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/09/world/americas/dea-agents-kill-smuggling-suspect-in-honduras.html
15. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/world/americas/from-honduras-conflicting-tales-of-a-shootout.html
16. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/may/17/hondurans-protest-dea-fatal-shootings
17. https://web.archive.org/web/20210801184150/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/25/us-honduras-drug-enforcement-administration-shooting
18. https://web.archive.org/web/20201111212616/https://www.judicialwatch.org/corruption-chronicles/dea-blasted-botching-operation-lying-coverup-wrongdoing/
19. https://web.archive.org/web/20121005171533/http://articles.cnn.com/2008-11-01/world/bolivia.dea_1_bolivian-government-autonomy-movement-chapare?_s=PM%3AWORLD
20. https://web.archive.org/web/20200819091334/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/07/19/dea-shielded-tainted-informant/287abb01-0d26-4ee5-92d4-83145d4a57e5/
21. https://web.archive.org/web/20210429051210/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/06/justice-department-surveillance-dea
22. https://web.archive.org/web/20210808014401/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dea-civil-asset-forfeiture_n_58dc07e5e4b08194e3b6cc09
23. https://web.archive.org/web/20210508183858/https://ij.org/inspector-general-report-dea-seized-3-2-billion-cash-without-judicial-oversight/
24. https://web.archive.org/web/20161225044840/http://ij.org/dea-admits-constitutional-problems-seizure-policies/

CIA Tee
Design by Abolish Everything

The CIA is sometimes regarded as one of most despicable US federal agencies; from disrupting elections in sovereign states^1,2,3 to funding paramilitaries and terror organizations to recruiting over 1,000 Nazis to work for them⁴ in the 1940s and '50s, their legacy is certainly vile. This shirt design specifically addresses the alleged CIA use of cocaine imports to fund their illegal wars in the 1980s.
In 1996, journalist Gary Webb published his first expose on the CIA's involvement in the surge of US crack use in the 1980s as an article in the San Jose Mercury News. In 1998, he published a full length book called Dark Alliance; the CIA, the Contras, and the crack cocaine explosion.⁵ Webb alleged that the CIA had used cocaine as a primary source of dark money to fund Nicaraguan Contras, who were right-wing US-backed rebels. The Contras operated in direct opposition to the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Spanish: Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN), a Nicaraguan socialist party. Gary Webb wrote his work in collaboration with Freeway Ricky Ross (the original Rick Ross), and Nicaraguan traffickers Oscar Danilo Blandón and Norwin Meneses. Ross was one of the largest crack dealers of his time, and has gone on to write his own books chronicling his experiences.

The response from mainstream media to Webb's writing was to shut down and dismiss it. The CIA formally investigated itself three times, each time declaring themselves innocent. The LA County Sheriff's department also investigated Webb's claims and found evidence supporting them, though their investigation is little reported of course.⁶ Gary Webb was found dead in his home in 2004. His cause of death was ruled suicide by the coroner⁷ despite that he was shot in the head twice, raising the suspicions of many. The involvement of the CIA in the so-called Crack Epidemic would likely be little known if not for Webb's contributions, may he rest in power.
The back of the tee features news clippings and headlines related to the subject, all are unaltered headlines from the mid 1980s to the early 2000s.

1. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/17/sunday-review/russia-isnt-the-only-one-meddling-in-elections-we-do-it-too.html
2. https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/sjlta3&div=15&id=&page=
3. https://sci-hub.se/10.1017/S008425590004256X
4. https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/27/us/in-cold-war-us-spy-agencies-used-1000-nazis.html
5. https://libgen.is/book/index.php?md5=E17A8253584433E10F125A71A9ACFDEA
6. https://web.archive.org/web/19970409204504/http://www2.sjmercury.com/drugs/library/sheriff/finding.htm 7. https://web.archive.org/web/20080507054818/http://dwb.sacbee.com/content/news/story/11772749p-12657577c.html


End the Drug War Designs
Design by CREAM

Woven patch with CREAM’s End the Drug War badge, made to emulate the style of commemorative badges produced and circulated by the DEA, attached to structured 5-panel hat.



Punk Patch Pack
Design by Kyra Thompson
This patch pack features punk patches screen printed in white plastisol on heavy black duck canvas and a mini sewing kit complete with five thread colors, buttons and a safety pin for mending.


Sticker Pack
Design by CREAM and Abolish Everything

This sticker pack features two 3" round stickers and a full size bumper sticker. The round stickers include CREAM's "End The Drug War" emblem and Abolish Everything's "50 Years Too Long" design. These are made to emulate the style of commemorative badges produced and circulated by the DEA. The bumper sticker, designed by Abolish Everything, calls attention to the debate about decriminalization. In the US, the conversation is often centered around theories and beliefs held by politicians, journalists and pundits. This gives weight to often blatantly disprovable ideas when there many countries which have already decriminalized drug use to provable great success.


I HATE THE WAR ON DRUGS Sweats
Design by Abolish Everything

White ink on black fleece sweats, large leg hit with the phrase "I HATE THE WAR ON DRUGS" (because, armed with information, who wouldn't?), right leg features collaged headlines, images and ephemera from the 1980s-2000s about the War on Drugs. There have been no alterations made to the text of the headlines.


Drug Wars Don’t Work tee
Design by Teenage Stepdad

"For 50 years we've declared war on our neighbors, our family members, and ourselves. This one single policy of drug prohibition has implications so far-reaching it's hard to quantify.  From mass-incarceration and the destruction of communities to the militarization of domestic police forces to the destabilization of entire regions of the world. But behind the numbers and statistics exists unspeakable cruelty and tragedy.  Make no mistake, this is a real war we are fighting.  Currently, America's longest war, as useless and futile as Afghanistan or Vietnam.
I'm proud to partner with CREAM to support Sonoran Prevention Works.  SPW and other harm-reduction organizations work to support and advocate for people navigating the harmful consequences of prohibition, meeting people where they are and helping them with what they need.
DRUG WARS DON'T WORK, because no drug is as harmful as the consequences of its prohibition.  50 years of this shit with nothing to show for it but devastation.  It's time to try another way."
-- Teenage Stepdad

Full color oversized front print on hand-dyed aged black tees with contrast grey stitching.