For 15 years in California, DPA has sponsored and supported some of the nation’s most progressive drug policy reforms. We sponsored landmark ballot initiatives that legalized medical marijuana (Prop. 215 in 1996), created the largest treatment-instead-of-incarceration program in the country (Prop. 36 in 2000), and sought to reduce criminal penalties for drug use and dramatically expand access to drug treatment (Prop. 5 in 2008). DPA was also a major supporter of Prop. 19, the landmark 2010 initiative to end marijuana prohibition in California. Our two state policy offices -- in San Francisco and Los Angeles -- and our national Office of Legal Affairs in Berkeley are instrumental in the success of many of California’s drug policy reforms.

 

In 2011, DPA’s California team will sponsor legislation in Sacramento to advance health-centered drug policies statewide to reduce overdose deaths and prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C. We are also engaged in an aggressive, multi-year campaign to lower criminal penalties for drug possession. And we will continue to play a leading role in efforts to make California the first state in the nation to end decades of failed marijuana prohibition policies by adopting a voter initiative (likely in 2012) to legalize marijuana for adults.

 

Learn more about our campaigns.