Seattle city officials to address drug policy head-on tomorrow
Published: March 8, 2005
MPP is posting this alert on behalf of the King County Bar Association.
On the heels of last week's release of the King County Bar Association (KCBA) report on the state of drug policy in Washington, the full membership of the Seattle City Council is sponsoring a special "Brown Bag Discussion" in City Hall at 12:00 p.m. this Wednesday to discuss viable alternatives to current drug policies at the city level.
This is an exciting development that will further the media and public attention recently focused on drug policy. Let's pack the room.
We need supportive—and appropriately dressed—activists to attend the hearing. The more supporters we have, the more lawmakers will realize that this is an issue that simply won't go away. The hearing will be held at the Seattle City Hall in the second-floor Council Chambers at 12:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 9.
The KCBA report, which instigated this forum, is the result of three years of work by a coalition that includes a broad swath of the Washington medical, legal, and faith communities. Participants include the KCBA, the Washington State Pharmacy Association, the Washington Academy of Family Physicians, the Washington Society of Addiction Medicine, the Washington State Public Health Association, the Church Council of Greater Seattle, the Loren Miller Bar Association, and the League of Women Voters of Seattle.
The coalition aims to promote more effective, less expensive, and more humane alternatives to today's criminal justice approach to substance abuse.
Participants in the Brown Bag Discussion will include Kris Nyrop, public health official; Professor Katherine Beckett, sociologist; D'Adre Cunningham, legal advocate; Willie Williams, community safety advocate; and Roger Goodman, director of the Drug Policy Project of the KCBA; as well as representatives from government and law enforcement.
For more information, please contact:
Elma Borbe at Council Member Della's office
206-684-8806
Elma.borbe@seattle.gov
or
K.L. Shannon at The Defender Association, Racial Disparity Project
206-447-3900
klorganizer@yahoo.com
Please attend the meeting—which is open to the public—and take advantage of this historic opportunity to help Seattle pioneer sensible drug policy. If you can't attend the meetings, please pass this message on to someone who can.
|
