Consider voting "yes" on Initiative 502, the marijuana initiative on Washington state's ballot. Face it, we have been chasing our tail on marijuana policy for decades. Current policy addressing marijuana's availability and use is laughable. We've outlawed its production and use generally, but voted twice to make marijuana production and use legal for "medical need" (implementation of which is crazy).

We have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in Washington state trying to enforce marijuana law. One can fairly question to what effect? Despite the get-tough intent, marijuana remains widely available, and citizens across the social spectrum use it recreationally.

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With Washington state revenues in free fall, with city and county budgets facing large deficits, our leaders are searching for direction about where to cut and what to save.

This is an opportune time to step up to the hard reality that incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders is a failure both in people and financial terms.

The public knows it; other countries have shown it; it is time to close this rat hole that costs much and benefits little.

State laws attack drug abuse as a moral violation demanding criminal punishment. Yet the persistent reality is that criminalization does not work either in keeping illegal drugs off the streets (supply) or dissuading people from using and abusing them (demand).

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