Rory O'Brien on Immigration and Anti-Racism
I grew up in Minnesota. Minnesota is primarily seen as a progressive state, and they’ve coined the term “Minnesota Nice”. With the murder of George Floyd, it has changed the world’s view of Minnesota a bit and forced people to actually see that even “progressive” states are experiencing racism and police violence. Neither racism nor police violence were new to me after spending a significant amount of time around or living in Minneapolis. It definitely helped me develop the racial justice/anti-racism lens that I have for drug policy.
I’ve been called a “multi-faceted drug policy person”. My activism and work has been in medical cannabis reform, full legalization of cannabis, harm reduction, overdose response, and addiction treatment reform. Decarceration and funding communities harmed by “the War on Drugs” is important to me. Something that is discussed far less within that is how BIPOC communities, especially Black and Indigenous communities, are disproportionately dying due to prohibition. The focus on the overdose crisis has been heavily on prescription opioids and white families. Even in Minnesota, according to Department of Health data, African Americans were two times more likely and American Indians were nearly six times more likely to die from a drug overdose than whites. It's personal to me because I have partnerships and do outreach in these communities. I have friends and family. I’m tired of seeing people die while it doesn’t seem to be seen as a relevant issue here.
“Drug policy has historically been used to harm and control Black and Brown people. Prohibitionist policy is still doing so, and it is far past to end that.”
My perspectives on drug policy developed early for me in a space that is predominantly white. I have experienced racism even within harm reduction and drug policy spaces. My perspective has evolved regarding the critical need to really advocate for a racial justice lens and advocate for people to actually listen to the people these policies are impacting. From a macro policy lens, there is an incredible amount of systemic racism and white supremacy to dismantle. Drug policy has historically been used to harm and control Black and Brown people. Prohibitionist policy is still doing so, and it is far past to end that.
“Some consider addiction a “disease” or disorder, but it remains the only condition punished for continuing to meet criteria for that condition.”
Some consider addiction a “disease” or disorder, but it remains the only condition punished for continuing to meet criteria for that condition. A small piece of the solution to reforming the treatment industrial complex will be decriminalization, or as SSDP says: “legalize people who use drugs”. A lot of drug policy locally has been stopped in the Minnesota State Senate. One bright spot was when Minneapolis Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Sensible MN working to get a letter from State Representative Heather Edelson to inform sober living facilities that the “no eviction” executive order during COVID-19 also applied to them. Sober living is an entirely unregulated industry, and we were seeing people be evicted for truly ridiculous reasons during the pandemic. It is an area I hope to continue to do work in.
Connections through Students for Sensible Drug Policy really pushed and inspired me to do more community organizing and not be quiet about injustice. Oriana Mayorga, the new Vice Chair for SSDP, has been incredibly supportive. I appreciate the team at Sensible Minnesota and their support. Through Sensible Minnesota, I’ve had the chance to listen and watch some amazing OG local harm reductionists, like Lee Hertel and Sue Purchase. One other person I’ve seen as a mentor is our former SSDP advisor, Nelson Perez—who was also my Psychopharmacology instructor. He teaches with a human rights and harm reduction lens for addiction counseling and is also involved in collaborating with local and international organizations. I adore all my new friends and allies who are alumni or other students with SSDP, both from our local chapter and the global organization.
“Latin America and other areas of the world have been severely harmed by the US-led “War on Drugs”. Efforts to address the harm caused must also happen on a federal level with immigration and on an international level.”
I’m looking forward to seeing the “Gateway Drug: Cannabis and Immigration” discussion at the National Cannabis Policy Summit on September 10th. This issue is important to me. The cannabis legalization bill that House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler introduced this past session was killed due to COVID-19, but it was a collaboration that organizations helped to support and involved traveling to different cities to have community discussions. That is one of the things I look forward to continuing next session. But while working on this, a huge barrier that was discussed regarding state legislation, immigration, and drug policy is that substances remain criminalized and scheduled on federal level. There is opportunity to write policy with legalization, expungement, and decarceration, but immigration is controlled on the federal level as well. Latin America and other areas of the world have been severely harmed by the US-led “War on Drugs”. Efforts to address the harm caused must also happen on a federal level with immigration and on an international level.