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We need a better approach.

The War on Drugs is still ruining lives in Washington State. Getting thrown in jail and saddled with a criminal record for drug use prevents people from accessing services, and finding housing and jobs. Threatening people with arrest makes them afraid to ask for the help they need.

Washingtonians have known for a long time that treating drug use as a crime hasn’t worked. Commit to Change WA is a statewide effort to replace the failed policies of the past with proven approaches that address substance use disorder through prevention, outreach, and recovery services.

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What Leaders Around Washington Are Saying

Carmen Pacheco-Jones
Carmen Pacheco-Jones
"I credit treatment, not jail, with helping turn my life around."
Kurtis Robinson
Kurtis Robinson
"Prosecution and incarceration don’t work. I’m living proof that treatment works. Treatment needs to be the first thing, not the last thing after all these other things we’ve been trying for so long."
Salvador A. Mungia
Salvador A. Mungia
“Too often we try to solve societal problems with the criminal legal system, which is a blunt, overused hammer that doesn’t work."

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Drs. Kim Thorburn and Robert Wood: Physicians support refocused approach to substance use disorder

May 26, 2022

"This month, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that more than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, a 14.9% upsurge from 2020. COVID-19 is believed to be part of the cause by fostering isolation and increasing barriers to already limited treatment...

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