LEGISLATION

Proposition 36 in Danger

Governor’s current proposal to eliminate funding for Proposition 36 and the Offender Treatment Program (which funds treatment for Prop. 36 clients) would both cost California tens of millions in federal matching dollars and also leave first- and second-time drug possession offenders on the streets, without access to treatment to which they are legally entitled. This could result in increased incarceration of people for low-level drug offenses, contrary to the intent of Prop. 36 and driving up state expenditures.

Since its passage in 2000, according to UCLA research, Prop. 36 has:

Provided treatment to over 30,000 people a year, totaling almost 300,000 people (half of whom had never received treatment before), with “progress” and “completion” rates comparable to other criminal justice referral rates. (The statewide completion rate reached 40% in 2007
Reduced by 40% (8,000 people) the number of people in state prison for simple drug possession, with no negative impact on crime trends
Cut state costs by over $2 billion, or $2.50-4 for every $1 invested

Advocates are urging the Legislature to apply federal Justice Assistance Grants to Prop 36/OTP. As part of the 2010 Federal Budget, California is likely to receive $35 million through the Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program. We are also urging the Legislature to free up resources for Prop. 36/OTP by reducing incarceration for drug possession. We support the governor’s call to stop sending people to state prison for a petty drug offense. Decades of research shows that incarceration in state prison can exacerbate, rather than decrease, drug use and criminality. What’s worse, the corrections system cut its rehabilitation budget by 40% in 2009 alone, making treatment less available than ever behind bars.
By reducing the number of people in prison for a personal drug possession offense (currently 24,000 people), California could redirect over $1 billion a year. In contrast, eliminating funding for Prop. 36 would generate additional costs to the state of $200-300 million a year. Additionally, California stands to lose another $48.3 million in federal Maintenance of Effort (MOE) dollars. Please join us in advocating for funding for Prop 36.

New Health Care Law Expands Access to Care

The historic health care legislation signed into law by President Obama will dramatically expand benefits and coverage for people with addiction. When the law is fully implemented, 32 million Americans who are uninsured today will have access to health insurance coverage, including for addiction. The new law builds on the principle of equity for addiction with other health conditions in the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 and marks significant progress in making it possible for many more Americans to get the help they need to recover from addiction.

From Faces and Voices of Recovery newsletter March 2010

Drug Overdose Reduction Act
The Drug Overdose Reduction Act will save lives.

U.S. House Representative Donna F. Edwards (D-MD)
introduced legislation (H.R. 2855) that would direct federal agencies responsible for public health and reducing
drug-related harms to take action to reduce overdose deaths. The Drug Overdose Reduction Act will:

Support new and existing overdose prevention programs in communities across the country through the creation of a new grants program, making federal dollars available for overdose recognition and response trainings, the distribution of naloxone and other overdose prevention activities.
Improve the government’s ability to monitor and report trends in overdose deaths, enabling public health officials and professionals to warn the public about emerging overdose threats.
Direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create a national strategy for reducing overdose deaths and direct the National Institute on Drug Abuse to conduct research on new and existing overdose prevention methods.
Overdoses nationwide more than doubled between 2000 and 2006. More people died in the U.S. from overdose in 2006 (the latest year data is available) than from HIV/AIDS or homicide. Significant federal funding is directed toward preventing HIV/AIDS and homicide, but virtually no federal dollars are designated for overdose prevention.
Overdose deaths are almost as common as car crash fatalities. Overdose is second only to motor-vehicle accidents as a leading cause of death in the U.S. And in sixteen states, overdose leads car crashes. Considering how often the media reports on a fatality in a traffic accident, it is alarming that overdose is occurring at similarly high rates.
Middle-aged Americans are the hardest hit by the overdose crisis. More people aged 45 to 54 died of drug overdoses than in motor-vehicle accidents. Additionally, drug overdose is the number two killer among young adults ages 15-34.
Overdose affects everyone. People from all walks of life are erroneously taking too much of a drug or combining one drug with alcohol and other drugs which increases the risk of overdose. Chronic pain patients, people suffering from temporary pain and individuals dealing with addiction to prescription medicine are dying from overdose.
Government overdose data needs improvement. Standards for investigating overdose deaths, recording details about the death, and determining the underlying cause of death vary from county to county and state to state. Drugs listed on death certificates for overdoses are coded by state scientists into broad categories, such as ‘sedatives’. As a result, it is difficult to identify specific drugs involved in overdoses and important details such as place of death, age and gender.
Lives are saved when people are trained to respond to an overdose. One of the primary means of preventing overdose deaths is training people at-risk of an overdose and people who reside with, interact with or care for atrisk people such as family members, health care providers, spouses, law enforcement officers and correctional officers on what to do when they encounter someone who is overdosing.
Rescue methods buy time and save lives. Individuals trained on how to respond to an overdose learn how to administer rescue breathing, place a victim in the recovery position and administer naloxone (a.k.a. Narcan – the prescription antidote that reverses overdoses from all opiate-based drugs including Vicodin (hydrocodone), Oxycontin (oxycodone), methadone and heroin).
There is currently no federal plan to reduce overdose deaths. Federal officials have largely ignored this crisis despite the fact that many deaths are preventable.

Marijuana Legalization on the CA Ballot: Separating Fact from Fiction
By Stephen Gutwillig – March 26, 2010

Brace yourself for a blast of alarmist hot air from the drug war status quo, a nine-month onslaught of distortions, half-truths and real whoppers.

     With a historic marijuana legalization initiative certified for November's general election, California is ground zero for a growing national debate. No matter what you think about regulating marijuana for adult consumption, brace yourself for a blast of alarmist hot air from the drug war status quo, a nine-month onslaught of distortions, half-truths and real whoppers. Marijuana offenses account for over half of all drug arrests nationwide. No wonder the law enforcement lobby is furiously digging in its heels at the prospect of "losing marijuana." Here are three commonsense reasons to dump decades of failed marijuana prohibition. (Spoiler alert: Billions of dollars in new state revenue isn't one of them. That's just gravy.)
1. Regulation will help bring marijuana distribution under the rule of law.
     Proponents for maintaining the marijuana ban claim that legalization would aid criminal markets. But it's prohibition that has ceded control to the black market; legalization and regulation would mean the opposite. Ending marijuana prohibition means ending the current state of chaos and implementing real controls on who has access to marijuana when and where.
     Whether we like it or not, marijuana is a mainstream recreational drug and famously California's largest cash crop. Prohibiting a commodity that popular has simply fueled a massive, increasingly brutal underground economy. Criminal syndicates in Mexico reportedly derive at least 60% of their profits from marijuana sales alone. The horrifying carnage that's claimed 15,000 Mexican lives in three years isn't about drugs, of course, but the drug profits guaranteed by prohibition. While regulating marijuana in California won't single-handedly solve the problem, bringing the market for marijuana into the open will undermine the Al Capones and Pablo Escobars of today by ending the monopoly they currently enjoy over their most lucrative product.
2. Marijuana use has little to do with marijuana laws.
     Drug warriors paint a dire picture of skyrocketing marijuana consumption, especially among young people, if the prohibition on adult use ended. But marijuana use isn't primarily impacted by criminal penalties. The U.S. has the highest rates of marijuana consumption in the Western world despite by far the most severe penalties. Among a stack of international studies of this question, the 2004 findings of the American Journal of Public Health "do not support claims that criminalization reduces cannabis use and that decriminalization increases cannabis use."
   Adults consume marijuana in huge numbers regardless of its illegality, and American high school students consistently report marijuana is actually easier to buy than alcohol or tobacco.