Episode 42: Movement for Family Power’s Lisa Sangoi on the Drug War and the Family Regulation System

Drugs and Stuff: A Podcast from the Drug Policy Alliance

The drug war has impacted nearly every aspect of our lives—and it’s time to uproot it. The Drug Policy Alliance has been working closely with other advocacy organizations to create Uprooting the Drug War, a project that shines a spotlight on the insidious ways the drug war has spread into the systems of child welfare or family regulation, public benefits, employment, immigration, housing, and education. Today we kick off a new monthly series on Drugs & Stuff, with each episode featuring a DPA partner sharing their experiences fighting the drug war in one of those six systems. We begin with Movement for Family Power’s Co-Founder and Co-Director Lisa Sangoi and DPA’s Gabriella Miyares discussing the difficulties families face in the family regulation system, and what we can do to fight for family power.

DPA is proud to partner with Movement for Family Power through our Advocacy Grants Program. To learn more about grants opportunities, visit drugpolicy.org/grants.

To learn more about how the Family Regulation System became Ground Zero for the drug war, check out the Ground Zero Report, a collaboration among MFP, DPA, and the NYU Family Defense Clinic.

For more information on the resources Sangoi mentions in the episode, visit:

The Bronx Defenders—Family Defense Practice

National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women & Girls

Email [e-mail] to get involved with the campaign to repeal the Adoption and Safe Families Act

Visit the Reimagine Support campaign page to learn more about the campaign to challenge unconsented drug testing of pregnant people, new parents and newborns and reporting to the family regulation system in NY State

Elizabeth Brico’s blog Betty’s Battleground

Dinah Ortiz, Vice Chair of North Carolina’s Survivor Union

J Mac for Families

Parent Legislative Action Network

Bobbie Butts and Vonya Quarles

Family Reunification, Equity, and Empowerment

Kelis Houston of the NAACP Minneapolis

Elephant Circle

Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, book by Dorothy Roberts