Strengthening Laws to Combat Addiction and Improve Mental Health

We need to continue to take steps forward to address the homelessness issue.

During the 2024 session, we passed comprehensive legislation which addresses the issues of addiction and community safety. This legislation reformed Measure 110 so that possession of street drugs returns to being a crime. It will be an unclassified misdemeanor and law enforcement will have the flexibility to press those who are found to have street drugs to go into a treatment program instead of going to jail. 

This new law goes into effect in September! We need to do more. We still have to establish additional treatment facilities. We also have to expand existing treatment programs. Most importantly, we need to get law enforcement and treatment programs to cooperate to make sure that this system will work effectively. 

The bottom line is that we have legislation in place which moves us in the right direction,  but we need to enhance that movement with additional legislation. 

One additional piece of legislation is to change the standards in terms of the capability of families to ensure that a family member can be pressed into addiction treatment, even if law enforcement is not involved. This means that the standards for commitment for a person who is addicted, in a civil proceeding, need to be changed so that it’s easier to get such a commitment when family members want to ensure treatment for someone in the family. 

Beyond this, we need to expand access to mental health programs. Our addiction problem flows over into mental health issues because we have addicted people with mental health issues and we have people who are mentally ill who have addiction issues. We need to recognize that there is a connection here. This means that the standards for commitment for mental health treatment also need to be revised. At present it is extremely difficult for a family member to get a mental health commitment proceeding accomplished as to another family member who is unwilling to undergo treatment.

As I move forward in the legislative process, I will continue to work on all these fronts. The goal needs to be that the members of our community who are addicted will see intervention. Those who are mentally ill will also see intervention. In between, those who are addicted or mentally ill who engage in criminal conduct will see potential criminal justice intervention but also the opportunity to avoid jail time through entering into a treatment program.