Pubdate: Mon, 03 Dec 2012
Source: Traverse City Record-Eagle (MI)
Copyright: 2012 The Traverse City Record-Eagle
Contact: http://www.record-eagle.com/opinion/local_story_128175513.html
Website: http://www.record-eagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1336
Page: 1A

STRATEGY, TIMING KEY TO POT LEGALIZATION

Washington's New State Law Goes into Effect This Week

SEATTLE (AP) - In the late1980s heyday of the anti-drug "Just Say No"
campaign, a man calling himself "Jerry" appeared on a Seattle talk
radio show to criticize U.S. marijuana laws. The Associated
PressTravel guide author and marijuana legalization supporter Rick
Steves holds a campaign sign in his office in Edmonds, Wash..

An esteemed businessman, he hid his identity because he didn't want to
offend customers who - like so many in those days - viewed marijuana
as a villain in the ever-raging "war on drugs." Now, a quarter century
later, "Jerry" is one of the main forces behind Washington state's
successful initiative to legalize pot for adults over 21. And he no
longer fears putting his name to the cause: He's Rick Steves, the
travel guru known for his popular guidebooks.

"It's amazing where we've come," says Steves of the legalization
measures Washington and Colorado voters approved last month. "It's
almost counterculture to oppose us." A once-unfathomable notion, the
lawful possession and private use of pot, becomes an American reality
this week when this state's law goes into effect. Thursday is
"Legalization Day" here, with a tote-your-own-ounce celebration
scheduled beneath Seattle's Space Needle - a nod to the measure
allowing adults to possess up to an ounce of pot. Colorado's law is
set to take effect by Jan. 5.

How did we get here? From "say no" to "yes" votes in not one but two
states?

The answer goes beyond society's evolving views, and growing
acceptance, of marijuana as a drug of choice.

In Washington - and, advocates hope, coming soon to a state near you -
there was a well-funded and cleverly orchestrated campaign that took
advantage of deep-pocketed backers, a tweaked pro-pot message and
improbable big-name supporters.

Good timing and a growing national weariness over failed drug laws
didn't hurt, either.

"Maybe ... the dominoes fell the way they did because they were
waiting for somebody to push them in that direction," says Alison
Holcomb, the campaign manager for Washington's measure.

Washington and Colorado offered fertile ground for legalization
advocates.

Both also have a history with marijuana law reform. More than a decade
ago, they were among the first states to approve medical marijuana.

Still, when it came to full legalization, activists hit a wall.
Colorado's voters rejected a measure to legalize up to an ounce of
marijuana in 2006. In Washington, organizers in 2010 couldn't make the
ballot with a measure that would have removed criminal penalties for
marijuana.

Since the 1970 founding of the National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws, reform efforts had centered on the unfairness of
marijuana laws to the recreational user - hardly a sympathetic
character, Holcomb notes.

That began to change as some doctors extolled marijuana's ability to
relieve pain, quell nausea and improve the appetites of cancer and
AIDS patients. The conversation shifted in the 1990s toward medical
marijuana laws. But even in some states with those laws truly sick
people continued to be arrested.

Improved data collection that began with the ramping up of the drug
war in the 1980s also helped change the debate. Late last decade, with
Mexico's crackdown on cartels prompting horrific bloodshed there,
activists could point to a stunning fact: In 1991, marijuana arrests
made up less than one-third of all drug arrests in the U.S. Now, they
make up half yet pot remains easily available.

"What we figured out is that your average person doesn't necessarily
like marijuana, but there's sort of this untapped desire by voters to
end the drug war," says Brian Vicente, a Denver lawyer who helped
write Colorado's Amendment 64. With a potentially winning message, the
activists needed something else: messengers.

Steves was a natural choice - the "believable, likeable nerd," as he
calls himself. Known for his public TV and radio shows, as well as his
"Europe through the Back Door" guide books, he openly advocated in
2003 for a measure that made marijuana the lowest priority for Seattle
police.

He already knew Holcomb, who had been the drug policy director at the
American Civil Liberties Union of Washington state. The ACLU chapter
recognized that voter education would be crucial to any future reform,
especially after polling revealed that many voters didn't even know
Washington had a medical marijuana law.

Holcomb helped recruit Steves to star in a 2008 infomercial designed
to get people talking about marijuana law reform. The video was aired
on late-night television and at forums held across the state, during
which experts in drug policy answered questions from audiences.

In November 2009, John McKay, the former Seattle U.S. attorney, agreed
to appear on one of those panels. McKay was well respected, from a
prominent Republican family and had served as the Justice Department's
top prosecutor in western Washington .

He called for a top-to-bottom review of the nation's drug war and
endorsed regulating marijuana like alcohol.

Suddenly, the legalization movement had traction.

On Nov. 6, I-502 passed with nearly 56 percent. Colorado's Amendment
64, which allows home-growing and does not include a drunken driving
standard, passed with 55 percent.

As they await word about whether the Justice Department will try to
block the measures from taking effect, national drug-law reform groups
are salivating over their chances in 2014 and 2016.

California? Nevada? Massachusetts?

"Something is happening, and it's not just happening in Washington and
Colorado," says Andy Ko, who leads the Campaign for a New Drug Policy
at Open Society Foundations. "Marijuana reform is going to happen in
this country as older voters fade away and younger voters show up.
Legislators see this as something safe to legislate around.

"They see the writing on the wall."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt