DOCTORS, LAWYERS, PHARMACISTS PUSH DRUG POLICY REFORMS

Hoping to persuade state legislators to shift money from punishing drug
users to treating them, state organizations representing lawyers, doctors
and pharmacists yesterday urged dramatic drug-policy reforms, saying the
"war on drugs" has failed.

The groups stopped short of calling for decriminalization, but the
Washington State Bar Association, Washington State Medical Association and
Washington State Pharmacy Association all have endorsed a King County Bar
Association report released yesterday that calls for a new way of thinking
about drugs -- specifically, admitting that time in prison, or the threat
of it -- doesn't help to undo addictions.

"There is nothing more expensive than long-term imprisonment," said Jan
Eric Peterson, a past president of the state bar. "And nothing works worse."

The report comes as legislators in Olympia prepare again to urge shorter
sentences for drug offenders and more money for treatment programs. A bill
to do that passed the Senate last spring but did not get through the House.

King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng, who helped draft that bill,
will return to Olympia during the session that begins next month to lobby
for essentially the same bill, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for Maleng's office.

The coming together of the establishment of lawyers, doctors and
pharmacists on the issue is a first in the state, and Fred Noland, another
past president of the state bar, said that is significant.

"We are calling for a real public dialogue on this ... one of the thorniest
issues in society," he said.

Some members of the task forces that prepared the report favored
decriminalization, Noland said. And, in his perfect world, he said, 10
years from now, nonviolent drug users would not even make a stop at the
courthouse -- just at a treatment center, where help would be available on
demand.

But the talk can't get that far yet, not from three groups that represent
the establishment. "We're aware this is a very difficult political
subject," Noland said.