Washington: ACLU Progress in Olympia - SB 5615

Last Wednesday, the Washington State Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate Bill 5615 http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=5615&year=2009 out of committee with a “do pass” recommendation to the full Senate. SB 5615 would reclassify adult possession of no more than 40 grams of marijuana from a misdemeanor crime carrying mandatory jail time to a civil infraction imposing a $100 penalty that could be paid by mail.

You can scroll forward to the discussion of SB 5615 by clicking on the progress bar at the bottom of the window. I encourage you to watch and listen. It is an important, historic opportunity to hear our elected representatives engage in an open and frank discussion of our state’s marijuana laws and the broader “war on drugs.”

Two days after the hearing, the Seattle Times published an editorial column ( http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008763930_opina20lance.html ) calling on our legislators to support SB 5615 and its companion bill, HB 1177 ( http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1177&year=2009 ).

There are two things you can do right now to keep this conversation going:

1. Visit our Take Action page at (http://aclu.org/sb5615) to send a
personalized email to your senator urging him or her to support SB 5615; and

2. Forward this email to your friends and family.

Thank you, and please let us know how your conversations are going.

Source: http://aclu-wa.org/