An article by Bruce Ramsey in the Seattle Times on June 15, 2005.

"Is it Time to End the War on Drugs?" The King County Bar Association gave that title to a report in 2001, and now has put out a study that answers, yes. The study, "Effective Drug Control," argues that the use of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs be considered health problems instead of crimes, and that government manage, inform and help people instead of putting them in prison.

Read Time For A New Strategy in the War on Drugs on the Seattle Times website.

Published by a conservative think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, this book looks at the war on drugs using a market framework.

The full-text of An Analytic Assessment of U.S. Drug Policy is available online.

Daniel Merkle hugs Sherelyn Anderson the day before her sentencing at the King County Superior Court for a 2001 drug case. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.

Heather Opel was 13 and felt cooped up inside the Snohomish County juvenile-detention center. When a prosecutor told her that Echo Glen Children's Center has a big outdoor exercise area and that's where she'd be sent if she admitted she helped kill her mother's employer, pleading guilty didn't seem like a big deal. (04-14-05)

OLYMPIA -- State lawmakers are planning to fund a $185 million medium-security prison in Franklin County to house Washington's growing inmate population and address overcrowding. (02-24-05)

Prisons are criminally expensive to build and operate.

The crush of prisoners locked up in Washington has the state Legislature in earnest conversation about a new prison. The round number is $188 million.

Another parallel and refreshing conversation is going on about who gets locked up and how long they should be held. (02-11-05)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - By insisting that California make rehabilitation a focus of prison life, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is joining a national movement of political leaders who believe it is time for a new approach to incarceration. (03-28-05)

OLYMPIA - Gov. Christine Gregoire is proposing a $2.8 billion construction boom and endorses her predecessor's proposal to let private investors build a new state prison.

The governor also is proposing a supplemental state budget of $219 million to tide the state over until the new fiscal year begins on July 1. (03-23-05)

In February, Vancouver became the first city in North America to begin clinical trials for heroin prescription. This step, which required an exemption of Section 56 of the Controlled Drug and Substances Act, came a year and a half after Vancouver had opened North America's first safe injection site.

An article by Roger Lauen and CSJ Executive Director, Dan Merkle, guest columnists in the March 24, 2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

The state has built several new prisons -- adding more than 10,000 prison beds -- since 1988. The huge state deficit doesn't appear to deter prison promoters; they want to build another prison for almost $200 million, even though responsible alternatives exist. During this period, the state population grew 32 percent while the state's prison population grew a staggering 172 percent.