>> let me read some more names. i'm from an organization that has substance-abuse solutions. what i will talk about -- >> let me read some more names. >> good evening, commissioners. i'm from an organization which has substance-abuse solutions. i want to talk about the impact of what the war on drugs has done. i have been a drug user. i have been clean for a number of years but because of the stigma and because of the convictions, they still cannot get a gainful employment and get

a college loan. sometimes, i don't feel so good about myself because of that. i was arrested here in san francisco for a quantity of marijuana that you can purchase at most dispensaries and that conviction eventually led me up to the county jail and state prison. afterwards, i had to register like i was a rapist or a sex offender. i was not able to leave the city of san francisco. all this happened to me here in this community. what i want to say in conclusion that we have been

socially to constructed to the point where you dehumanize people and that is a proven strategy for genocide. thank you. [applause] >> i member of the san francisco drug users union and i have been a drug counselor, and drug user rights advocate for 15 years. i was labeled a drug user many years before and i was still a drug user today. it does not matter what i use, when, or how. i will always suffer some form of discrimination. one of the settings is a system of drug treatment in america. many are offered treat it as opposed to it incarceration.

for some but not all, the choice between treatment in jail is an easy one. the problem is that going through treatment for what is considered a disease and forcing it treatment -- the penalty is often we incarceration. many times it is for the active and testing a drug. clients who are often discharge into the street with little or no support, they often have overdose deaths. the involvement involves the amount of time that people are involved with the criminal justice system. and failing abstinence based treatment should not be a basis for incarcerating drug users, it should be the basis for more treatment. there is also the treatment choices to the incarcerated drug

users. what is offered are programs that are based on 12 step programs, abstinence only and behavior modification. basically, the drug users should have the right to treatment that is a humane. thank you. [applause] >> i am a community organizer for san francisco drug users in in. that is my first time for public speaking so i apologize as in a bit nervous. however, the argument here is of a war. the first rule of war is that you never do it for any reason. the feds did it anyway. in the last 40 years, we have been misrepresented it, lied to, stolen from, made slaves, thrown

in prison. nevertheless, it is only for a few in the federal government who are gaining by this. well, ladies and gentlemen, lies and misrepresentations in a war is an act of treason. there, sir, you have your new way of prosecuting the war. instead of listening to these people, we should be arresting them. it is a proof of treason under the law. just remember that an angry mob can enforce the law just as easily as judges and lawyers and police officers and there is only one punishment for an act of treason. [applause] >> good evening. i am walter paulson.

[singing] clear the drug dachshund you have nothing to hit but the rights to clear the dr-- clear the drug r. it is >> write soon, and the feeling is right it is ladies and human-rights. -- >> it is human rights, the feeling is right so, what a night oh, what a night. you light up my human rights life you give me hope for a brand new

day you light up my human rights life and give me hope, for everything going your way it can that be wrong when it feels so city right because you, you light up my city writes life here comes the night here comes the night please, make human-rights come out right [applause] >> thank you. before the next speaker, i just

want to call up that cards one more time. [reading names] >> my name is not important. if you look at prohibition, prohibitionist targeted the irish, italians. the drug wars, people may be like you, i don't know. they put people like me in jail i will not be a scholar and i cannot be more interested in drugs, then i want to be a leader in my community. it is for people to make blacks become the next indians. everyone knows what happened to the indians. allen iverson, they called him the next bad boy. he said, i don't want to be the

next bad boy. i don't want to be a target. -- had treatment in chemical relief. that is what helped to cure drug addiction. the corporations came after them because he was put in them out of business. the last thing i will say. it will be the same police that will try to come for me. that is it. >> i am a research and advocacy director for the fellowship of reconciliation. president obama will be meeting with presence throughout the hemisphere. several of those presidents will ask president obama to totally

be considered the war on drugs. why they doing this? they are doing this because of massive bloodshed in their own nations that is brought about because of the drug war. in colombia, there are 4.7 million people who have been uprooted from their homes in the past 15 years. two and a half million sense this was declared with columbia. in mexico, there has been 50,000 people have been murdered as a result of the drug war. honduras, they are one of the major areas. these people are paying with their blood. the u.s. is not having any of it. even before this summit has occurred, the u.s. has announced that they will not reconsider these policies. you can bet that hillary clinton will not be telling the stories

that you heard tonight when she meets with the president this weekend. so, it is up to us because there is no one else to represent these nations. they cannot go to the u.n. which has declared drugs illegal under the u.n. convention under 1961. it is up to the u.s.. i have recommendations for you to ask mayor lee to bring a resolution to the u.s. conference of mayors and lobby for a change in the paradigm to sit down with nancy pelosi and public and ask what she and her party are doing to change the paradigm of the drug war and to have the supervisors have a resolution to take money out of incarceration and the war in latin america and put it into treatment. i would urge you to put more urgency and energy into all those resolutions and measures. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening.

i would like to thank you for holding this important meeting. i am a community activist and filmmaker. i would like to echo the sentiments of some of the people that have gone before me. up until today, i talked with one of my friends who was actually incarcerated and i told him about this hearing going on. i want to share some my thoughts about the impact that drugs have had on my community and more important like my colleagues. one of the on brothers got 40 years. this can about because of the disparity. that sort of law was targeted and aimed at the black community. i also want to sheriff that my mom was a victim of drug use and

we were a family that was actually evicted because of her drug use and still to this day, she is unable to get any housing from that matter. this because of the drug use issues that she has almost 20 years ago. as a result of that, i am a burden because i have to allow my mother and father to live in my house. hopefully this can bring about some solutions. i want to echo my own brother talking about the city. this is ideal when you think about the context we are dealing with. this is starting to deal with the issues that have come about and the devastation.

>> thank you for holding this hearing. this represents an opportunity for san francisco to really do something that is historical. in particular, cutting the war on drugs off at the root. we can do that. i have four different ways in which we can start accomplishing that. first of all, it is the federal dollars that come down to the cities and municipalities that drive the war on drugs. from a policy standpoint, the city of san francisco cannot -- those funds.

there are two things, the stop and frisk rule and those that are drivers. also, we can look at jurisdictional shopping. there is an effort to increase the penalties. finally, i think that we need to take a hard look at decriminalization of our youth in the public-school system. oftentimes that results in early contact with the criminal justice system. we're taking a hard look and getting serious about addressing the 70% drop out rate of african-american males in public schools because it is those things that predisposes our youth to a life of selling drugs or being involved in drugs. we will take a whack at the root of the problem. thank you.

>> good evening and thanks for this opportunity to speak. i of seen a lot of love one's depend on drugs. i first witnessed the injustice and inhumanity of the drug war. due to a lack of recovery services, and some friends of mine went on a road trip to get clean. she was given the option to justify and walk away without any charges. she refuses to testify against her friend. and said, she received a 10 year sentence. the drug war is an expensive failure. 48% of the need for drug treatment goes on met while the

prisons are filled beyond capacity. after decades of these policies that are driven by fear, we can show statistically that the war on drugs has really been a war on people's lives and this is the time to stop the mass incarceration and provide educational opportunities. a lot of groups have mentioned this already but we have partnered with different organizations to introduce a bill that would end the practice of ending drug possession as a colony and i urge the support of the commission. >> thank you.

>> i want to thank you for having this hearing. i think you are interested in suggestions. i did volunteer in the san francisco drug court a number of years ago and for the judge. we decided to have a speaker series. so, i brought someone in to talk about child care and custody rights and then afterwards, i said i will not tell people what they want to hear. the overwhelming number one issue that people wanted to hear about was employment. i think that a lot of people that end up in the criminal- justice system, maybe they just have an employment problem. next, i want to say that while voluntarily with the drug court , the prosecutor was thinking about knocking some people out

of court because they were perhaps more serious. we did a review of some of the cases and i was particular looking at a lot of the operations that were predominately happening in the tenderloin, mostly $20 crack cocaine sales. i was really appalled and disgusted that our resources were being used that way. people very likely have to implement problems or perhaps other mental health issues. i think realignment is an opportunity to divert people into programs that help them. also, in terms of the drug war, yes, i'm upset every day that we have the drug war. there are people in my family that use different substances. the people that use alcohol are not a criminal.

you could suggest that law enforcement measures be passed to make drug crime enforcement at the lowest priority. people should be judged by the contract, not their urine or blood. -- people should be judged by their contract. >> thank you. >> i agree with the last speaker that when the best solutions would be to have the board of supervisors put something out to expand the lowest priority

ordinance. this would take a lot of resources out of enforcement and we could put it into treatment. the private prison industry spends hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to make drug laws more tough so that they can bankroll it and we are all paying the price. i have a friend who is in the hospital right now and he needs a new kidney and he will let you put on the list because 20 years ago, he had 8 open have it printed in the meantime, he has been a father, a grandfather, he is a wonderful guy. apparently, a dope fiend still deserve to live. they cannot get food stamps, educational aid. i think that is it. >> thank you.

>> we want to thank everyone for participating to address this point, i will pass it back to see if any of the commissioners have anything that would like to say. >> we have heard a lot of information and people have shared their thoughts and experiences with us and this would be time if we have questions of people who are still with us or of one another or things that we would like our staff to began to look into more deeply. >> i have a couple of questions.

if you have had an opportunity to review the report from the center on juvenile and criminal justice that has been submitted? i was curious as to whether you had an opinion as to the difference and felony drug arrests within the city and county of san francisco compared to the drug arrest rates fori of the report. i do have a lot of questions. what is the operational

relationship between the sentences go police department and the drug enforcement it -- the sans francisco police department and the drug enforcement agency? >> i do not feel qualified to answer that question. those relationships are complicated. i know there is some interaction, but to give a definitive answer, i do not think i could do that now. >> so they would have that information or be more qualified to speak to that? >> probably the commander of the investigations commission, but i am glad to give effect to the commission with -- to get back to the condition with a more comprehensive statement. i know there are numerous relationships and a not such i could describe intelligently. >> my other one has to do with

if you could give us some idea as to what the federal financial contribution to the city is that is earmarked for drug enforcement if any. >> i do not know. >> my final question is activities in the bayview community which assistance in which -- assistance from the highway patrol who is employed, are those activities aimed at the y are rest -- at dui arrest? how often has the department had to bring in other agents with a

traffic stop 0. >> i just wanted to let people know what this is the hearing, and we are here to listen, and we have invited people from the law enforcement community to be here and to listen, and all these questions are great to get out, and we can move on to another step in the future, but i thank the commander for being willing to answer questions when we have invited them here to listen, and they were specifically told they would not be speaking, so i want to make that clear. >> i wanted to acquaint him with some questions from the audience, and i think now i and some of my colleagues would be interested in to delving deeper

a. but i think it is completely appropriate to list some questions we would like to ask of law enforcement. >> thank you. i have no further comment. >> in section c we focused on education, but education was not emphasize the as much commo, ani want to point out the recidivism rate is approximately 7%.

i also want to point out the education all levels as one of the highest levels of impact on recidivism, reducing it to about 5%, so as we discuss this further, and as we proceed to the next steps, what i would like to do is encourage my colleagues to focus on education as one of the components. i would like to encourage the because it has such a deep impact. when the city leaders are discussing, and when we are discussing the distribution of resources, we know on the state's low-level -- on the

state level in the last 20 years, the numbers of prisons have increased so dramatically, there have been four times the number of people incarcerated, get public universities have been cut by over 50%, and when we are making those kinds of decisions, and i do not -- i know we do not control state decisions, but we do control some of the city funding on the secondary level, and as we are excited -- we are deciding on enforcement policies, i think we have to understand every decision impact public education, access to education, and a human experience, so i would like to encourage that as we go forward, f