Why Washington Is a Leader in Ending the War on Drugs: Exhibit A
Ending the War on Drugs means ending our over-reliance on the criminal justice system to address what is primarily a public health problem. It means replacing arrest, prosecution, and incarceration with prevention, education, and treatment as our primary strategies for reducing substance abuse and improving the health and safety of our communities. And it means ending the many civil liberties abuses that have flowed from our declaration of war on drugs -- which in reality is a war people - disproportionately people of color, young people, and poor people.
The good news: There is reason for hope that the War on Drugs is coming to an end. And Washington is a leader in making it happen.
Exhibit A: Seattle-based Stranger reporter Brendan Kiley hears about people getting sick from tainted cocaine and doesn't just write an in-depth piece of investigational journalism. He goes a step further - several steps, actually - and collaborates with local harm reduction advocates, a UW psychiatry professor doing research at Harborview Medical Center, a UW alcohol and drug abuse epidemiologist, a drug policy lawyer, the Seattle Police Department, the Seattle City Attorney, and the King County Prosecutor to develop an experiment for letting local cocaine users test their product. The users will also be able to share their results anonymously, allowing follow-up research, reporting, and public education. This is a perfect example of Washington leaders recognizing the limits of the criminal sanction in addressing harms associated with drug use and abuse and being willing to try a different strategy.
Exhibit B: Earlier this year, Washington legislators passed a law offering immunity from drug possession charges to people who call for help when they think someone they're with might be suffering an overdose. Here, policy-makers recognized not only the limits of the criminal sanction but how the criminal sanction can actually exacerbate substance abuse problems by making people afraid to reach out for help.
Stay tuned. We're looking forward to presenting more evidence that the end of the War on Drugs is in sight. We fully expect Washington to continue leading in the quest for more effective, fairer, and more rational approaches to drug policy.
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Initiative 1068
I am very surprised that you did not mention the people of Washington's 2010 Initiative 1068 to remove all criminal and civil penalties for possession, cultivation, sales and transportation of marijuana by adult persons in Washington that only failed to get on the November ballot by a deficit of 18% of the total number of signatures needed. I understand that the initiative is being re-submitted in 2011. I plan to volunteer in support of it in every way possible and I think Washingtonians with any conscience should do the same. www.sensiblewashington.org
Would anyone at ACLU Washington be able to tell me why the authors of I-1068 or anyone from Sensible Washington are not a part of the public forum that you are hosting on September 12 in Seattle to discuss the future of marijuana prohibition in Washington? It seems incredible since they are even better organized with many thousands of times more volunteers than they had last time and the initiative being sure to succeed in 2011. Many new Sensible Washington supporters such as myself, plan to attend this forum and we are definitely looking for answers.
Shanna Drew
Seattle
Sensible Washington and the general public
Use of the criminal justice system to deny access to medicine is a public health problem. Drug use is primarily the exercise of fundamental rights, not a public health problem. Neither is drug use primarily a public safety problem. The "war on drugs" has always been a tool of oppression and means of expanding federal police powers. Its evolution into what is effectively a state religion has been a bit of a surprise and ACLU's failure to recognize and challenge that has been a great disappointment.
From Exhibit B: "This is a perfect example of Washington leaders recognizing the limits of the criminal sanction in addressing harms associated with drug use and abuse and being willing to try a different strategy." This is an example of the legislature slightly lessening harm caused by the use of criminal sanctions against matters the government has no legitemate reasons to penalize.
EXHIBIT C: This year a genuine grassroots organization, Sensible Washingtion formed and came remarkably close to qualifying a marijuana legalization initiative for the ballot with volunteer signature gatherers who did far more to generate public support for I-1068 in the November election than paid signature gatherers would have. Public support that can be expected to increase for the 2011 Marijuana Reform initiative which Sensible Washington is going to file and SW is already organizing and expanding its volunteer base to increase public education & support which will be an ongoing campaign, be ready to get the petition widely circulated ASAP so it will qualify for the ballot next year and have the best chance of passing in the election. I-1068 was endorsed by the Washington State Democrats which I believe is the first time a marijuana legalization initiative has been endorsed by a state level major political party organization.
"The ACLU-WA presents a discussion on the history, current status, and future of marijuana-law reform in Washington and the United States." It would be appropriate to have some empty chairs at the forum to remind people who doesn't have a seat at this table. With nobody formally from Sensible Washington or from the general population of Washington who helped with the I-1068 campaign or is going to be involved with the Sensible Washington campaign to qualify an initiative next year the discussion will be missing representatives of what seem to be the major movers in marijuana-law reform in Washington.
I am a longtime supporter of the ACLU but that has little to do with the ACLU's remarkably lackluster positions and actions regarding conflict of drug laws and exercise of civil liberties.
David Keller
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"The only freedom which counts is the freedom to do what some other people think to be wrong. There is no point in demanding freedom to do that which all will applaud. All the so-called liberties or rights are things which have to be asserted against others who claim that if such things are to be allowed their own rights are infringed or their own liberties threatened. This is always true, even when we speak of the freedom to worship, of the right of free speech or association, or of public assembly. If we are to allow freedoms at all there will constantly be complaints that either the liberty itself or the way in which it is exercised is being abused, and, if it is a genuine freedom, these complaints will often be justified. There is no way of having a free society in which there is not abuse. Abuse is the very hallmark of liberty."
-- Former Lord Chief Justice Hailsham
http:www.sensiblewashington.org
http://actwithus.com/blog/sensible-washington-volunteers/
http://www.oneminuteforpeace.org/
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