Stories from the ACLU of Washington

It was recently announced by the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that a new institute will be created that will study “substance use, abuse, and addiction research and related public health initiatives.” This institute will replace the existing National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and other institutes dealing with addiction. As the NIH director states, creating the new, unified institute “makes scientific sense and would enhance NIH's efforts to address the substance abuse and addiction problems that take such a terrible toll on our society.” In other words, the brain processes involved with addiction are universal across substances, so we shouldn’t be studying them in a piecemeal fashion based on their legal status. Makes sense right? Perhaps it’s time our lawmakers follow suit and pass laws which treat addiction as the public health issue it is, instead of the current criminal/non-criminal system we now employ.

In a previous post, we mentioned Stranger reporter Brendan Kiley's groundbreaking piece on levamisole, a chemical used to deworm livestock, showing up as a cutting agent in the U.S. cocaine supply. Preliminary results of a testing kit distributed on the streets of Seattle suggest that 85% of the city's cocaine supply is tainted with levamisole.

In September Governor Chris Gregoire, warning that Washington’s finances were “bouncing along the bottom,” by executive order decreed 6.3% across-the-board budget cuts for all state agencies. Just days before the Governor’s announcement the state spent almost $98,000 to execute Cal Brown, who had spent 17 years on death row for a crime committed in 1991. That sum was only the tip of the iceberg, however. As a recentreport by the Washington State Bar Association notes, the specter of a death sentence regularly adds a premium of half a million dollars or moreof legal and judicial costs per case.

California’s Proposition 19 - the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act – narrowly lost on election day. The final tally, 46.1% voted in favor and 53.9% against (the most successful results ever for a legalization initiative). Washington state’s two liquor privatization initiatives also faltered. Initiative 1100 (largely financed by Costco) lost in a close race, while Initiative 1105 (largely financed by liquor distributors) lost by double digits. Although there is no single answer for why voters didn't pass these measures, one common theme may be that the public wants state-level control when it comes to intoxicating substances. Let’s take a closer look at these races. Read more

For some students, playing on a sports team can make the difference between success and failure in school. It can be the one thing that keeps them coming to school each day, motivates them to keep their grades up, or connects them to a caring adult in the building. So, when a school cuts sports opportunities for any of its students, it’s unfortunate. When a school cuts opportunities for students who are already underrepresented in sports and activities, or otherwise disadvantaged, the consequences can be significant and it can raise potential civil rights issues. Read more