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1996 SESSION

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HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 183 Expressing the sense of the General Assembly concerning drug and alcohol addiction.

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, March 7, 1996 Agreed to by the Senate, March 6, 1996

WHEREAS, substance abuse continues to devastate communities of color, especially the African-American community disproportionately; and

WHEREAS, drug and alcohol addiction are not necessarily criminal justice issues but issues of mental, physical, and spiritual health; and

WHEREAS, intravenous drug use has created dramatic increases in the transmission of HIV disease in the African-American community, especially among women of child-bearing age and newborns; and

WHEREAS, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, in a resolution adopted on December 2, 1995, encouraged all states to treat drug and alcohol addiction as a disease for the purposes of policy development and priority setting; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That in developing policy for the Commonwealth, drug and alcohol addiction should also be addressed from the perspective of a disease model rather than strictly a criminal justice model; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the General Assembly express its intent to support policies which will give priority to the need of substance abuse treatment with the ultimate goal of providing treatment on demand.