Drug treatment advocate praises '05 pot initiative
Seattle man says Colorado 'on cutting edge' of change
Rocky Mountain News
Published February 17, 2006 at midnight
An advocate for more treatment for drug offenders told the Colorado Bar Association on Thursday that last year's passage of Denver's Initiative 100 marijuana measure put Colorado "on the cutting edge" of changing drug laws.
The initiative eliminated the city ordinance prohibiting marijuana possession but did not affect the state law that most pot suspects are prosecuted under. A measure to undo the state law may appear on the ballot statewide this year.
Roger Goodman, director of the King County Bar Association in Seattle, talked with the group of Colorado Bar members, legislators and judges at the conference Thursday about the "War on Drugs."
In Seattle, nonviolent drug offenders are sent into treatment programs instead of jail, Goodman said.
The money that was being spent to house and feed the offenders supports treatment programs, and no new money is needed, he said. "The sky hasn't fallen, and people are getting help," Goodman said.
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