Communities across the U.S. are staggering under the weight of half a century of failed drug policies. When federal and state governments fail to act, cities can. Learn how to implement policies rooted in harm reduction and human rights at the local level – where they are most likely to have the greatest impact.
Drug use and possession
Low-level drug sales
How is Criminalization Harmful?
There are serious consequences for drug use in nearly every sector of civil life education, employment, housing, child welfare, immigration, and public benefits. Punishment is not limited to the criminal legal system. Instead, it is the default reaction to drug use wherever it shows up, impacting our lives in profound but largely unrecognized ways. We must shine a spotlight on the insidious ways the drug war has spread into all our systems.
Learn more about how the drug war harms everyone at UprootingTheDrugWar.org.
What are the Benefits of Decriminalization?
Burien program sees success helping those in crisis avoid jail
The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program in Burien aims to keep certain offenders out of jail and into community-based treatment and support services. Author: KING 5 Staff Updated: 4:47 PM PDT May 13, 2021
BURIEN, Wash. Lawmakers recently approved an overhaul of Washington’s approach to drug possession after the Washington Supreme Court struck down its previous law as unconstitutional.
The bill makes simple possession of controlled substances a gross misdemeanor instead of a felony, and mandates that local governments provide treatment options. While the state will provide funding for the treatment, each local jurisdiction will have to figure out its own plan.
New Washington state law makes drug possession a misdemeanor
By RACHEL LA CORTE and GENE JOHNSON Associated Press May 13, 2021 3:45pm Text size Copy shortlink:
OLYMPIA, Wash. The jeans were from American Eagle, via Goodwill, and they were too short for their new owner, 6-foot Shannon Bowman.
So Bowman stitched a couple inches of denim onto the bottom of the legs and put them on for the first time two days after her friend had giv
There needs to be recourse : Deputies have limited options in White Center vandalism cases
Law enforcement faces limited options in White Center vandalism cases
The White Center Community Crime Prevention deputy said law enforcement cannot book people into jail for most misdemeanor cases right now.
WHITE CENTER, Wash. - Many of the storefronts are boarded up in the business corridor of White Center due to vandalism in recent months.
Senior Deputy Bill Kennamer of the King County Sheriff’s Office told Q13 News about 85 calls have come in for vandalism and burglaries since April 2020. When you walk down the street and you see all the boarded up windows it makes it look like the neighborhood is in blight and it’s not, said Deputy Kennamer, who is also the White Center Community Crime Prevention deputy. If we’re standing right here, some guy comes up here and throws a brick right through that window, I can’t book that person to go to jail. It’s a misdemeanor crime. The