LONGVIEW — A discussion on whether hard drugs should be legal in Washington state is scheduled from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday in the Laufman Lecture Hall in the Lower Columbia College Health and Science Building.
The talk is the fourth of the five-part series, “Community in the Crossfire: Seeking Civil Dialogue in Uncivil Times,” which aims to create civil local political discourse. The series also is available via Zoom at civil-dialog.com and will be recorded by KLTV and broadcast at a later date.
In 2021, the state Supreme Court ruled Washington’s simple drug possession law was unconstitutional. The case, known as the Blake decision, threw out the state’s simple drug possession law and state legislators replaced the felony measure with a misdemeanor that requires two referrals to drug treatment before arresting suspects. The ruling also overturned roughly 40 years of convictions.
Forum organizers say the change in “Washington in effect decriminalized low-level drug possession.”
Forum panelists are Dallas Delagrange of the Cowlitz Tribal Drug Council; Cowlitz County Sheriff Brad Thurman; Jeb Bolerjack, a medication assisted treatment registered nurse and LCC adjunct faculty member; and Alison Holcomb, the American Civil Liberties Union’s campaign leader for the I-1922 campaign.
