Overview: Over the past decade, drug policy reform in California produced some of the nation's most progressive laws, including initiatives that allow for medical marijuana and treatment-instead-of-incarceration. The Drug Policy Alliance’s four California offices—Sacramento (California Capital Office), San Francisco (Safety First Project), Berkeley (Office of Legal Affairs) and Los Angeles (Southern California Office)—continue to be instrumental in the success of many of California’s drug policy reforms.

One of DPA's main efforts in California is reducing the number of nonviolent drug offenders in the state’s jails and prisons. California embarked on the largest expansion of a state prison system in United States history during the 1980s, increasing the number of incarcerated drug offenders from 2,000 in 1980 to almost 45,000 in 1999—a 25-fold increase in just 20 years.

In the past four years, California state lawmakers improved pain management practices for doctors and patients, enabled drug treatment participants to seal records of their convictions, and extended the University of California's medical marijuana research program.

Proposition 36: Last year, the Sacramento office was successful in stalling legislation that would re-write Proposition 36. SB 803, a bill authored by San Diego Democrat Denise Ducheny, would have allowed judges to incarcerate individuals convicted of a drug offense even though they have entered treatment. As such it unconstitutionally placed incarceration into the “treatment-instead-of-incarceration” initiative.
 
In a last ditch effort to force the bill through the legislature, Senator Ducheny removed SB 803 from committee consideration and introduced SB 1137, a secretive budget trailer bill identical to SB 803 (and therefore also unconstitutional). After a tough political fight, legislators passed the bill under heavy pressure from the Governor's office.
 
DPA and the California Society of Addiction Medicine filed suit immediately after the Governor signed the legislation. In Alameda County Superior Court, we won a temporary restraining order. The preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled for September 14, 2006.

Medical Marijuana: Equally important to our California work is ensuring the rights of patients to safely access medical marijuana. California continues to lead the country on medical marijuana. The spirit of reform sparked by Proposition 215 endures.
 
Medical marijuana patients and advocates scored an important victory with the creation of a voluntary identification card system for patients and caregivers to help protect them from police harassment and arrest. The Drug Policy Alliance is monitoring its implementation to ensure compliance from the government officials. 

We are also working to encourage local governments to enact ordinances that provide increased access to medical marijuana under an established system of regulation. Our Northern California offices were involved in the formation of San Francisco’s Medical Cannabis Act, which provides for the licensing and regulation of medical cannabis dispensaries within the city.

Some local government actors have made good faith efforts to comply with state law.  However, others are openly flouting it.  Some cities and county boards of supervisors are banning medical cannabis dispensaries outright or placing lengthy moratoriums on their establishment. The biggest culprit is San Diego’s Board of Supervisors, which recently took the unprecedented (and legally dubious) step of suing the state to invalidate Proposition 215.

The Drug Policy Alliance is working to stop these efforts and ensure that counties and other local governments comply with the will of the California voters. Along with the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans for Safe Access, our Office of Legal Affairs jointly responded to the San Diego County Board of Supervisor's attempts to re-criminalize medical marijuana, by filing a motion to intervene in a Board of Supervisors-initiated lawsuit to strike down Prop 215.
 
Recent Legislation: In 2004, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law two pieces of legislation backed by the Drug Policy Alliance. The first bill, SB 1159, allows adults to buy up to ten sterile syringes at pharmacies without a prescription. The second bill, AB 1796, restores food stamp benefits to drug offenders who have served time and are drug-free.

The good news in 2005:  Governor Schwarzenegger signed AB 296, DPA-backed legislation that provides for the dissemination of education and prevention materials regarding Hepatitis C to prison inmates during intake.  Nearly 40% of California’s prison population is infected with the potentially deadly disease. Another bill that the governor signed, AB 547, cuts bureaucratic red tape for local governments to authorize syringe access programs. Previously, local governments had to declare a state of emergency every two weeks in order to authorize syringe exchange programs. The new legislation allows those governments to now re-authorize syringe access programs annually.

However, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed two important pieces of legislation last year. One of the vetoed bills, AB 1597, would have allowed local governments to use state HIV-prevention funds on syringe access programs.

The other vetoed bill, AB 855, provided that California opt out on the ban on cash assistance to needy families of former nonviolent drug offenders. Several other states, including seven with Republican governors at the time of modification, have already opted out of the federal ban.

The California Capital Office continues to monitor all legislative efforts implicating drug policy, serving as a steadfast advocate for science, compassion, health and human rights.

Adolescent Drug Education: The San Francisco office’s Safety First Project recently issued "Beyond Zero Tolerance," a booklet by UCLA professor Rodney Skager that outlines practical reforms for educators and parents. “Beyond Zero Tolerance” rejects the abstinence-only posturing and senseless fear-mongering currently forwarded by programs like the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program.  Instead, it calls for comprehensive, science-based drug education programs.

Specifically, “Beyond Zero Tolerance” endorses interactive programs that constructively engage students who need assistance, including restorative practices for students who would otherwise be suspended or expelled.

On the student drug testing front, the San Francisco office oversaw the newly published second edition of the booklet "Making Sense of Student Drug Testing," and continues to update the DPA website dedicated to protecting student privacy and parental involvement.

Additionally, the Drug Policy Alliance is organizing opposition to the Drug Czar’s 2006 national tour to push student drug testing in cities across the nation. This involves gathering local activists to attend the events, and providing them with materials to distribute to concerned policymakers and parents.
 
Southern California Activism: The Drug Policy Alliance’s Los Angeles office has worked with many coalitions in that city, including having a seat on the Hepatitis C Task Force of Los Angeles County. As part of that coalition, the Drug Policy Alliance played a large part in organizing a summit on hepatitis C in November 2005. The Los Angeles Drug Policy Alliance has also formed coalitions with other groups such as the AIDS Project Los Angeles.