News
Strategy, Timing Key to States’ Marijuana Legalization
Washington and Colorado offered fertile ground for legalization advocates
By Gene Johnson
The Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — In the late-1980s hey-
day 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.
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 popu-
lar guidebooks.
``It’s amazing where we’ve come,’’ says
Steves of the legalization measures Wash-
ington 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 evolv-
ing 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 Hol-
comb, the campaign manager for
Washington’s measure.
Washington and Colorado, both
culturally and politically, offered
fertile ground for legalization advo-
cates — Washington for its liberal
politics, Colorado for its libertarian streak,
and both for their Western independence.
Both also have a history with marijuana
law reform. More than a decade ago, they
were among the first states to approve med-
ical marijuana.
Still, when it came to full legalization,
activists hit a wall. Colorado’s voters reject-
ed a measure to legalize up to an ounce of
marijuana in 2006. In Washington, organiz-
ers 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 recre-
ational user -- hardly a sympathetic
character, Holcomb notes.
That began to change as some doctors
decade, with Mexico’s crackdown on car-
tels prompting horrific bloodshed there and
headlines here, 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 -
- about 90 percent for possession of small
amounts -- 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. ``If we can focus attention on the
fact we can bring in revenue, redirect
law enforcement resources and raise
awareness instead of focusing on pot,
that’s a message that works.’’
With a potentially winning message,
the activists needed something else:
messengers.
Steves, who lives in the north Seat-
tle suburb of Edmonds, was a natural
choice -- the ``believable, likeable
nerd,’’ as he calls himself. Known for his
public television 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 pri-
ority for Seattle police.
He already knew Holcomb, who had been
the drug policy director at the American
Thursday is ‘Legalization Day’ in
Seattle, 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
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 mari-
juana laws. But even in some states with
those laws, including Washington, 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
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December 5, 2012
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