Major California and Los Angeles Drug Law Reforms in 2014
If the old adage ‘as California goes, so goes the nation’ has any truth to it, then 2014 was cause for hopeful optimism for drug law reform advocates across the U.S. It was a year that saw several major victories for those working for changes in drug law in Los Angeles.
Many criminal lawyers and drug attorneys in California and Los Angeles are praising the defeat of regressive bills and changes in existing laws in 2014 that they say will bring major improvements, including lessening criminal charges for minor drug possession and use, cutting down on prison and jail overcrowding, equalizing penalties for similar crimes, reducing HIV and Hepatitis C infections, and combatting poverty.
The Drug Policy Alliance, billed as the “leading organization promoting drug policies that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights”, has listed what it considers the major accomplishments in drug law policy reform in California in 2014.
- Defeat of the Medical Marijuana Regulation Bill (SB1262), which many criminal lawyers in Los Angeles and California complained would require oversight of regulation by an unqualified state agency, would result in unfair treatment of medical marijuana patients, and deny a medical marijuana license to people with prior drug convictions.
- Passage of the Sterile Syringe Access at CA Pharmacies (AB1743) bill, which will continue to allow people to buy sterile syringes at pharmacies without a prescription, and lift the limit on how many can be purchased and possessed, a major factor in HIV and Hep C prevention.
- Passage of the California Fair Sentencing Act (SB1010) bill, which eliminated the discriminatory disparity in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine, which crime law attorneys have been decrying for over a decade.
- Repeal of the lifetime ban on benefits such as food stamps for those convicted of a drug felony.
- Passage of bill AB1535, which makes the drug naloxone, a drug which reverses overdoses from opiates, available as an OTC medicine, able to be purchased without a prescription from California pharmacies.
- And most importantly for some, passage of Proposition 47, the Safe Schools and Neighborhoods Act, which reduces several petty crimes from felonies to misdemeanors, and allows for reclassification of criminal records, removing felony convictions from the records of as many as 1 million people, and ultimately reducing the prison population.
2014 was a fateful year for drug and criminal law in Los Angeles, and a harbinger of things to come for the rest of the country. If you’re in need of the services of a drug or criminal law attorney in Los Angeles, contact the law offices of Lawrence Wolf at (310) 277-1707 for a free consultation.
