Washington lawmakers approve drug decriminalization bill in committee vote

A landmark Washington state decriminalization and drug treatment bill passed its first legislative hurdle on Monday, with a panel of lawmakers voting to move the measure forward hours before a key deadline.

The House Public Safety Committee voted 7–6 to approve the Pathways to Recovery Act, HB 1499, which would remove penalties for “personal use” amounts of illegal substances and expand outreach and recovery services . The vote is the first time that a panel of lawmakers in a US state has voted to remove criminal penalties for possession of all drugs.

“This bill is a claim that substance use disorder is a treatable brain disease that people recover from,” said lead sponsor Rep. Lauren Davis (D) before the vote. “This bill aims to reach every person living with a substance use disorder, even before it touches the criminal justice system.

Voters in neighboring Oregon passed a similar measure last year, expanding treatment and replacing criminal penalties for small amounts of drugs with a $ 100 fine or referral to treatment. Washington’s proposal, on the other hand, does not include a fine.

Instead, the bill would dramatically expand outreach and recovery services, which is part of what proponents have called a holistic “continuum of care” to support people with use disorders. drugs. While Washington has a relatively strong drug treatment system, they say, the state has long overlooked funding for proactive education and long-term recovery.

“We are funding one leg of a three-legged stool,” Davis said at a committee hearing earlier Friday in which lawmakers testified on the proposal. “We pay for the treatment over and over again, because the insurance covers it, but we fail to fund the front-end awareness and back-end recovery support services which are absolutely fundamental to fostering a sustainable recovery.

Watch lawmakers and advocates discuss the drug decriminalization bill below:

Lawmakers and lawyers introduced the measure earlier this month, after struggling to finalize the wording and sponsors of the bill. The organizers of Treatment First Washington initially planned to put the proposal to the ballot last November, but the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the signature-gathering effort, and last summer the group announced it would take the proposal to the lawmakers instead.

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Despite attracting two dozen House sponsors (including a lone Republican, Rep. Carolyn Eslick), HB 1499 almost did not vote for that entire session. After the committee hearing on Friday, representative chair Roger Goodman (D) told Marijuana Moment that the panel is unlikely to move the measure because it was introduced too late in the session. On Sunday, however, it was added to the committee’s schedule.

“This late submission has caused great inconvenience,” said Goodman, who voted in favor of the bill, during Monday’s hearing. “On behalf of the rest of the committee, I apologize.”

The hearing for the bill on Monday was not particularly smooth either. The committee initially approved an amendment that would have removed the decriminalization portion of the bill, more or less destroying the general thrust of the bill. Within minutes, however, Democrats gathered in a caucus meeting and then offered to reconsider the vote, and Rep. Tina Orwall (R) cast a “no” vote on the amendment, defeating it.

Eventually, the group moved forward with an updated version of the bill, which includes a number of changes from the original. Among them, the substitute legislation delays the implementation of decriminalization by six months, from December 1, 2022 to July 1, 2023.

Regulators at the state’s Health Care Authority (HCA) would have until April 1, 2023 to pass rules and define how much of each drug constitutes a “personal use amount.” A panel made up of public defenders and prosecutors, as well as people currently using illicit drugs and others in recovery, would inform HCA of the decision.

The surrogate bill also explicitly states that decriminalization would not prevent employers from setting or enforcing rules against drug use. And it removes an earlier provision that would have allowed people who have already been convicted of drugs to have those records erased without meeting the requirements of the current law for the reversal of convictions. People could still have their convictions overturned under the bill, but they would not be exempt from the existing rules.

Watch the committee debate and vote on the drug decriminalization bill below:

Opponents have argued that by removing the threat of criminal sanctions HB 1499 is going too far.

“The way the bill is currently drafted,” Rep. Gina Mosbrucker (right) said on Monday, “if you walk up to a police officer and hold a bag of heroin, methamphetamine or fentanyl, even in front of his face, you can just walk away. And it seems wrong on so many different levels.

Others have argued that removing sanctions could actually hurt drug users. “I have seen incarceration save so many lives,” said Representative Brad Klippert (right), a veteran of the military and law enforcement.

Mosbrucker and Klippert both voted against the bill, with Representatives Jenny Graham (R), Dan Griffey (R), John Lovick (D) and Jesse Young (R).

Representative Tarra Simmons (R), who voted for change, said that in her experience as a recovering person, criminalization only prevents people from getting help.

“As someone who is now 9 and a half years recovering from a substance use disorder that included opiates, methamphetamine and marijuana,” she said, “I remember wanted to get help, but I was scared because it was a crime. ”

Despite the hesitation of some in applying the law, others said the bill made sense. King County District Attorney Dan Satterberg, for his part, told lawmakers that prosecuting people for such small amounts of drugs was “just not an effective strategy” to tackle overdose deaths.

“That’s a gram,” he said, holding up a single packet of Splenda to point out the relatively small amounts of hard drugs that would be allowed under the bill. “It’s not an ounce, it’s not a kilo. This is a very small amount compatible with the need for daily drug use.

A number of international drug experts also weighed in at last week’s hearing. Ruth Dreifuss, former President of Switzerland and member of the United Nations World Commission on Drug Policy, began her comments by expressing “my deep appreciation for the quality of the House bill”.

“The free choice of those who control their consumption and do not harm others must be respected,” Dreifuss said. “For those who suffer from drug addiction, access to treatment must be guaranteed.”

João Augusto Castel-Branco Goulão, national drug coordinator for Portugal, the first country to decriminalize all drugs, also spoke in favor of the bill.

Responding to questions from skeptical lawmakers about how decriminalization had unfolded in that country, he argued that the country had seen “a marked improvement in all available indicators.” Overdose deaths have declined, drug use among young people has declined and the estimated number of people with drug use disorders has declined, he said.

The next step for the bill is the House Rules Committee, and then possibly a vote in the room.

Some other state legislatures are also considering similar reforms. A Kansas lawmaker late last week introduced a measure to replace criminal penalties for simple drug possession with a fine of $ 100. People caught with drugs other than marijuana would be referred to compulsory treatment and non-compliance would be an offense.

In New York City, a Senate bill introduced last month would decriminalize low-level possession of any controlled substance and instead impose fines of $ 50.

Activists across the country have also pursued a more targeted decriminalization model to deprioritize law enforcement against naturally occurring psychedelics, such as psilocybin and ibogaine.

A Republican lawmaker in Iowa introduced a bill last week to remove psilocybin from the list of controlled substances.

In California, a lawmaker said late last year that he planned to introduce a bill that would decriminalize psychedelics. And activists hope to see new laws to largely remove criminal penalties for simple possession of drugs.

Lawmakers in Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Texas, and Virginia are also considering psychedelics and drug policy reform bills for the 2021 session.

In Washington, meanwhile, Goodman, the chairman of the committee that approved the decriminalization bill on Monday, told Marijuana Moment that the state “will continue to push hard and ride this wave.”

“Washington State will lead the way as we end the war on drugs,” he said.

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