For better or worse, California likes to decide drug policy at the ballot box. Voters have already approved marijuana legalization, but criminal sanctions against users of heroin, cocaine and other drugs are very much intact, though they’ve been moving in a more lenient direction. It would not be surprising to see a proposition entirely eliminating criminal penalties for drug possession in the near future.
The removal of criminal penalties for drug possession — which is very different from allowing legal sales — is not a new idea. It has been implemented in other countries, and a joint statement from the United Nations and World Health Organization last month recommended the review and repeal of “laws that criminalize or otherwise prohibit … drug use or possession of drugs for personal use.”
[For more of this story, written by Beau Kilmer and Robert MacCoun, go to http://www.sfchronicle.com/opi...ies-for-11303420.php]
Comments (0)