New Directions California, July 8 in Los Angeles: A Public Health and Safety Approach to Drug Policy

An unprecedented collection of drug policy stakeholders – including physicians, harm reductionists, public health workers, law enforcement personnel and community advocates – will come together to chart a new course in California’s drug policy at New Directions California on Thursday, July 8 in Los Angeles. The event, co-sponsored by the Drug Policy Alliance and the California Society of Addiction Medicine, will take place from 9:30 am - 4:30 pm at The California Endowment’s Center for Healthy Communities at 1000 N. Alameda Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 (near LA’s Union Station).

At the one-day conference, drug policy experts from across the country and around the world will address strategies for moving beyond drug war policies and toward a health-centered approach to drug use.

California is facing dual crises of revenue shortfalls and prison overcrowding. The State Legislature is working to close a budget deficit of over $20 billion. At the same time, over 30,000 people are in state prison for a drug offense at a cost of over $1.5 billion per year ($50,000 per person per year); and the Governor has proposed eliminating funding for Drug Medi-Cal and for Proposition 36 treatment instead of incarceration. What can California learn from other states and countries about returns on investments in drug policy?

Three hundred stakeholders will come together at the conference to discuss topics, including the following:

• The impact of the new federal health care legislation on access to drug treatment
• Successful health-oriented drug policies in Portugal and Canada
• The public health impacts of California’s marijuana policy
• The impact of drug policy on homelessness, incarceration and public health crises
• Law enforcement strategies to expand access to treatment, not jail
• The roles of physicians and law enforcement personnel in determining drug policy

Panel members include:

• Donald MacPherson, former Drug Policy Coordinator for the City of Vancouver
• Fátima Trigueiros, Portugal’s Institute on Drugs and Drug Addiction
• Ruth Finkelstein, Vice President for Health Policy at The New York Academy of Medicine
• Jeffery Wilkins, MD, President-Elect of the California Society of Addiction Medicine
• David Pating, MD, member of the Executive Board of the American Society of Addiction Medicine
• Rod Shaner, Medical Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health
• Pete White, Founder and Co-Director of the Los Angeles Community Action Network
• Kash Heed, Member of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly
• Sergeant Richard Schnell, Homeless Outreach Team, San Diego Police Department
• Kyle Kazan, retired Officer, Torrance Police Department
• Jakada Imani, Executive Director, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
• Antonio Gonzalez, President, William C. Velasquez Institute
• Ethan Nadelmann (Executive Director, Drug Policy Alliance)

See a full list of panel members.

When asked about the war on drugs on the campaign trail President Barack Obama said, “I believe in shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more on a public health approach [to drugs].” Polls show the American people agree. President Obama’s drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, told the Wall Street Journal last year that he doesn’t like the term “war on drugs” because “[w]e’re not at war with people in this country.” Yet for the tens of millions of Americans who have been arrested and incarcerated for a drug offense, U.S. drug policy is a war on them—and their families. What exactly is a public health approach to drugs? What might truly ending the war on drugs look like?

The Drug Policy Alliance is co-hosting the 2010 New Directions California Conference with the California Society of Addiction Medicine.  See a full list of partners and learn more information on the conference.