Last Updated December 1, 2004

After nearly a decade of effort by supporters of reform, both houses of the Pennsylvania legislature passed a treatment instead of incarceration bill in 2004. Gov. Edward Rendell (D) signed it into law November 19, 2004. The legislation provides for intensive treatment as part of a drug sentence, and the first seven months of the treatment program would take place behind bars. While this is not as strong a reform as the no-prison approach approved in several other states, it is a step in the right direction.

In December of 2000 the ruling in the court case Mixon v. Commonwealth restored the right to vote to approximately 36,000 former felons. Previously, ex-felons had to wait five years to petition the government to allow them to vote.

Despite this step forward, Pennsylvania remains behind many states in other areas of drug law. For example, Pennsylvania remains one of the few states with serious barriers to obtaining syringes without a prescription. The sale of syringes without a prescription in pharmacies has proven to be one of the most effective ways to increase sterile syringe availability and thus to control the spread of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, and other blood-borne diseases among injection drug users. Studies show that injection drug users who are afraid of arrest for syringe possession are more than twice as likely to share needles. This policy is controlled by regulation and therefore could be changed without legislation.

Pennsylvania's Drug Policy Reform Organizations: 

• Pennsylvania Coalition of AIDS Service Organizations
• Prevention Point Philadelphia
• Prevention Point Pittsburgh
• Drug Policy Forum of Pennsylvania
• Temple University: The Project on Harm Reduction in the Health Care System