Ashleigh Dennis, J.D., serves as Staff Attorney with the Harm Reduction Legal Project. Prior to joining the Network, she worked at Root & Rebound, a reentry organization, on direct services and impact litigation, focusing on helping those returning from incarceration with an emphasis on employment and record cleaning. She has been involved in criminal justice and drug policy reform since high school after experiencing a DEA raid and interning with Law Enforcement Action Partnership during her senior year. In college, Ashleigh founded the Chapman University chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (“SSDP”). During law school at the University of California, Irvine, she continued activism with SSDP and interned with Root & Rebound, the ACLU SoCal Jails Project, the Loyola Project for the Innocent, and Community Legal Aid SoCal. She is barred in California and Florida.

Articles & Resources

Collateral Consequences of Criminalizing Substance Use Disorder

Law & Policy InsightsSubstance Use Prevention and Harm ReductionHarm Reduction Legal ProjectLegislation and Legal Challenges

July 25, 2023
by Ashleigh Dennis and Corey Davis

The “War on Drugs” could better be described as a “War on People.” In addition to obvious negative impacts such as incarceration and increases in drug-related harm, this “War” also leads to collateral consequences that can last for years —or even a lifetime. Collateral consequences are legal barriers resulting from a person’s conviction in addition to incarceration, parole or probation, and fines and fees.

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