• Marijuana Reform
• Sentencing Reform
• Harm Reduction

Drug Policy Alliance has been active in California since 1996, when it spearheaded the campaign to pass Proposition 215. That successful initiative legalized medical marijuana in California. Just four years later, DPA sponsored another successful initiative, Proposition 36, which created the largest treatment-instead-of-incarceration program in the nation.

In 2008, DPA put Proposition 5 – the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act – on the ballot. The largest prison and sentencing reform in U.S. history, that initiative was defeated by a deceptive, multi-million dollar campaign waged by the prison industrial complex. However, it did succeed in setting the terms of the current debate around criminal justice reform in California.

Since 2000, DPA California has secured other reforms through the legislative process in Sacramento. California 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.

Marijuana Reform

Medical Marijuana: In 1996 DPA spearheaded passage of the nation’s first medical marijuana law. California’s Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, allows patients to use marijuana for medicinal purposes with a doctor’s recommendation. Despite the federal government’s efforts to stymie Prop. 215 by threatening and shutting down dispensaries, over a dozen other states have legalized medical marijuana since 1996, many of them due to DPA’s efforts.

Since the passage of Prop. 215, DPA has worked vigilantly through both legislative advocacy and litigation in federal and state courts to expand, protect, and defend medical marijuana in California. DPA was instrumental in the passage of SB 420, which established statewide guidelines and a patient and caregiver registration and ID card program to protect patients and caregivers from interference from law enforcement. DPA has worked on the local level in various cities and counties throughout the state to ensure that local medical marijuana regulations protect and monitor dispensaries so that patients have uninterrupted access to safe medicine. 

DPA has also played a role in the most significant medical marijuana cases in California as either lead counsel or as amicus, starting with the landmark case of Conant v. Walters, in which DPA served as counsel of record. That case, which was ultimately won unanimously in the Ninth Circuit, upheld the right of doctors to impart their medical advice to patients and the right of patients to hear that advice. Without that victory, there would not be medical marijuana in California or any other state.

Finally, DPA has litigated or filed amicus briefs in many other cases designed to establish and protect medical marijuana in California. These cases involved issues such as establishing a medical necessity defense in federal court (OCBC), preventing the federal government from interfering with patients’ rights (WAMM), forcing resistant counties to implement SB 420’s patient ID card program (San Diego), protecting patients from employment discrimination (Ross), protecting caregivers ability to grow, provide and advise medical marijuana patients (Mentch), and establishing a patient’s right to pretrial hearing a dismissal of criminal charges (Mower).

Decriminalization: DPA was instrumental in making marijuana the lowest law enforcement priority in San Francisco and Oakland. And in 2008 DPA authored and placed Proposition 5 on the statewide ballot. That initiative, had it passed, would have made the offense of marijuana possession in California an infraction – the equivalent of a parking ticket – rather than a misdemeanor. 

Taxation and regulation: DPA is a leading advocate to end the prohibition on marijuana in California. We are a leader of the coalition in support of AB 390, a historic bill introduced in 2009 by Assembly Member Tom Ammiano to regulate and tax marijuana in California like alcohol. This profound reform would generate an estimated $1.3 billion in new revenue, redirect hundreds of millions of scarce law enforcement dollars to matters of real public safety, reduce teen access to marijuana through strict controls and penalties on sales to minors, and significantly undermine violent cartels that rely on illegal marijuana for the majority of their income. AB 390 is expected to be debated in committee in early 2010.

Sentencing Reform

Prop. 36: California’s landmark treatment-instead-of-incarceration program – Proposition 36 – was written and sponsored by DPA, and approved by 61 percent of California voters in 2000. Under this law, people convicted for the first or second time of a nonviolent, low-level drug possession offense receive community-based drug treatment instead of jail or prison.

In passing Prop. 36, voters were responding to skyrocketing incarceration rates and associated high costs. California had 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 its first seven years, Prop. 36 graduated 84,000 participants, saved the state nearly $2 billion, expanded treatment capacity by 132 percent and reduced the number of drug offenders in prison. For more information on Proposition 36 and DPA’s ongoing work to protect and expand the successful program, visit www.Prop36.org.

Prop. 5: Because of that success and the need for greater reform, DPA worked with allies to write and then spearheaded the campaign to pass the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA), or Proposition 5, on the November 2008 ballot. That initiative, had it passed, would have significantly expanded funding for treatment in the community and improved public safety.

According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, it would have reduced the prison and parole populations by at least 40,000 people and saved taxpayers at least $2.5 billion in foregone prison spending. For more on Prop. 5, visit our campaign archive.

Harm Reduction

Disease Prevention: DPA has led historic efforts in California to authorize and fund syringe access. After years of sponsoring bills that were passed by the legislature but then vetoed, we finally succeeded in 2004 in passing legislation (AB 547) to allow local governments to authorize syringe access programs annually. Previously, reauthorization was required every two weeks.) DPA has also successfully campaigned for bills to allow local governments to use state HIV prevention funds on syringe access programs.

Under another DPA-sponsored bill in 2004 (SB 1159), the Disease Prevention Demonstration Project, fourteen counties and three cities allow over-the-counter pharmacy sales of syringes to adults without a prescription. The project, a no-cost way to expand access to sterile syringes, is set to expire in 2010. DPA is committed to its extension. For more on this project, visit www.helpstopAIDS.com.

In another successful effort to prevent the spread of communicable diseases, DPA succeeded in moving legislation in 2005 (AB 296) that requires the dissemination of education and prevention materials regarding hepatitis C to prison inmates. Nearly 40% of California’s prison population is infected with the potentially deadly disease.

Overdose Prevention: One of DPA’s first pieces of legislation in California was the Overdose Prevention, Recognition and Response Act, which passed but was vetoed in 2001. More recently, in 2007, DPA helped create a set of pilot projects to distribute naloxone (SB 767). By providing training on and access to naloxone, overdose prevention and treatment programs have enabled bystanders to save lives when someone overdoses.