“In 2013, a staggering 88 percent of Department of Justice's reported wiretap warrants were for narcotics.” -WIRED, Want to see domestic spying’s future? Follow the drug war April 2015

Data collection and surveillance are increasingly ubiquitous in the lives of people who use drugs, both legally and illicitly. The use of law-enforcement-monitored prescription drug databases, drug testing, and other forms of privacy infringements have found a foothold in the lives of millions of people in the United States. We believe people should not be monitored, tracked or otherwise surveilled simply because the government wants to make sure they are not using drugs. It is a wasteful use of tax dollars to surveil people for the sole purpose of identifying, punishing and criminalizing them for using illegal drugs or prescription drugs.

Drug testing is a near universal feature of the criminal justice system in the United States, with most probationers and parolees required to undergo drug testing regardless of the nature of their underlying offense or history of drug use. Additionally, many municipalities further require people convicted of drug offenses to register as ‘drug offenders’ with law enforcement in their communities.

These drug testing and registry policies are a massive infringement on personal privacy and have gone far beyond any reasonable mandate to improve public safety. DPA is working to promote rational drug policies rooted in science and public health rather than conjecture and fear.