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Decades of treating personal use as a crime has only made matters worse. Our current drug use laws can ruin lives based on a single mistake.

Possession of even a small amount of drugs can land someone in jail and saddle them with a lifelong criminal record that interferes with getting a job, housing, or student loans. Substance use-related “[a]rrest and incarceration often destabilize an individual’s life, including their housing, health care, employment, and social connectedness,” according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Recovery is hard enough as it is, but incarceration makes it more difficult, and disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous, and people of color - among felony drug offenders in Washington, Black defendants are 62% more likely to be sentenced to prison than similarly situated White defendants. In 2018 Washington State, Native Americans accounted for 3.4% of drug arrests (where the race of the arrestee is know), while making up only 1.9% of the population. For African Americans, it’s even worse - 11% of the arrests, while making up only 4.3% of the population.

Barriers to treatment, as well as criminal prosecution, disproportionately impact communities of color. For example, Native Americans/Alaskan Natives have one of the highest overdose rates for opioids in Washington State, and in the nation.

Each day about two people die of an opioid-related overdose in Washington; thousands more struggle with addiction. We need a new approach to reduce overdose deaths (1,173 in WA in 2018) and other substance use public health impacts, and improve access to treatment and recovery.

We need to stop wasting money and time on a broken system, and invest in improving access to treatment and recovery services.

We need to address the root causes of substance use disorders with programs and services that actually work and are more cost effective than jail.

The estimated cost of substance use disorders to Washington state is at least $6 billion per year, including direct and indirect public costs related to crime, health, and productivity. Substance use disorder treatment is more effective and costs much less than punishment. Research shows that every dollar spent on substance use disorder treatment saves $4 in health care costs and $7 in criminal justice costs.

Instead of prosecution and incarceration, we must provide people with substance use disorders with greater access to treatment and recovery services such as 24/7 triage centers for people in crisis, case management, mental and physical health care, housing, and apprenticeships and job training.

The Treatment and Recovery Act would:

1. Expand access to solutions that work. Increase by nearly 30% ($125 million) state funding for substance use disorder treatment and recovery programs from existing marijuana tax revenues. Remove health insurance barriers, since Medicaid and private insurance currently don’t cover treatment and recovery services while people are incarcerated.
2. Use public health-based approaches first, instead of arrest and prosecution. Reclassify personal use drug offenses from crimes to a civil infraction and connect people with the right services to address the root causes of their substance use disorder, helping them get back on track. Give people caught possessing personal use amounts of drugs a civil infraction and connect them to treatment via a mandatory service assessment. If the person attends the assessment within 72 hours, the civil infraction will be waived. Existing criminal penalties for selling or manufacturing illegal drugs remain in place.
3. Enhancing law enforcement training and public health education. Provide every law enforcement officer current, evidence-based training and new tools to connect people with substance use disorders to the right services. Fund a statewide education campaign about substance use and how people can get help for themselves or loved ones through grants to local health departments.

Read the Treatment and Recovery Act.

Has this worked elsewhere?

Yes. Several European countries, such as Portugal, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic, have treated drug possession as a public health issue instead of a crime for decades. All three of these countries have much lower rates of substance use disorder and overdose deaths than the U.S. This measure builds off these lessons and provides us an opportunity to expand on their success.

Oregon and parts of Washington have stopped charging people who possess small amounts of drugs with felonies – and studies have shown it has already led to fewer collateral consequences, like loss of employment opportunities, and greater racial equity. In 2014, California reduced its penalty for drug possession – helping save the state $156 million and reinvesting the proceeds in drug treatment, mental health services, programs for at-risk youth in public schools, and victim services. Similar laws have been implemented in places like Oklahoma and Utah.

How would this policy be paid for?

The additional $125 million for local, community, and tribal treatment and recovery programs would come from existing marijuana tax revenues, which totaled about $390 million in 2019. Much of the marijuana tax is already dedicated to health care, prevention, and Washington’s cities and counties. This new $125 million for treatment and recovery would come from the remainder of the marijuana tax that currently flows into the state’s general fund. When the services for the Treatment and Recovery Act are implemented, it will cost only one half of one percent (0.5%) of the state’s annual operating budget but increase state funding for treatment and recovery services by about 30%.

Will this provide more housing, job placement, and mental health treatment than is currently available?

Yes. In addition to making more resources available to expand new and existing programs, this funding will increase availability of recovery support services like case management that helps people navigate and access existing housing service options, job training and apprenticeship programs, and insurance coverage for mental health services.