School District Makes Penalties for First-Time Offenders Less Harsh ISSAQUAH -- A new drug policy offers softer penalties for Issaquah School District athletes who participate in drug and alcohol assessment, but broadens the application of penalties for second or third violations. The policy, which takes effect this fall, was released Thursday after the school board approved rewriting the rules last spring. "I think it's just good policy that takes into account that we're not a penal institution, we're an educational institution," said school board member Mike Winkler, one of the advocates for change in May. [continues 216 words]
The Bellevue Police Department is one of several King County cities to end its Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program, while other cities and school districts have continued theirs. Here's a rundown: Auburn Officer Leslie Jordan, a five-year veteran of the Auburn Police Department, took over the department's D.A.R.E. program in January. It targets fifth-graders in the Auburn School District with a 10-week program that puts Jordan in a classroom at the district's elementary schools for 45 minutes each week. [continues 1333 words]
Bellevue Loves Officer Bob, but Some Say the Anti-Drug Program Doesn't Work BELLEVUE -- At the end of this school year, the Bellevue Police Department will end its involvement in D.A.R.E., becoming the latest law enforcement agency in King County to drop the well-known drug and prevention program in public schools. In calling for an end to his department's 17-year involvement with the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, Bellevue police Chief Jim Montgomery cited several studies stretching back more than 15 years. [continues 1318 words]
OLYMPIA -- After years of targeting home-based methamphetamine laboratories, state and law enforcement officials are shifting focus, taking aim at meth addicts themselves. Attorney General Rob McKenna, along with the 26-member task force "Operation: Allied Against Meth," is backing legislation that focuses on longer prison sentences and emphasizes substance abuse treatment. "Our jails and prisons are filling up with people who have been convicted of meth offenses and offenses related to their meth addiction," McKenna said, citing a Spokane survey that determined that 93 percent of inmates convicted of felony property crimes were meth users. [continues 604 words]
A group of local attorneys is criss-crossing the nation with an urgent message: The war on drugs has failed, and it's time to find an exit strategy. Led by Kirkland attorney Roger Goodman, the King County Bar Association's Drug Policy Program has, for the past five years, been front and center in the growing debate over the drug war. "The government must assert regulation and control over the drugs themselves ... to undercut the illicit market," Goodman said Thursday. "That means drug by drug we must determine what regulatory measures should be taken." [continues 765 words]
Study Argues Drug War Focus Has Shifted Away From Heroin, Cocaine A recent nationwide study has identified King County as having the sharpest increase since 1990 in marijuana-related arrests among the country's 10 most populous counties. When King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng sparked a political movement three years ago declaring the "war on drugs has failed," marijuana arrests in King County had risen 418 percent between 1999 and 2002, according to the study results released this week by The Sentencing Project. [continues 895 words]
