A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO MARIJUANA CONTROL

Initiative 502 is an initiative to the Legislature that would
legalize, tax and regulate marijuana under Washington state law. It
would authorize the Liquor Control Board to license Washington
businesses to produce and sell limited quantities of marijuana to
adults 21 and over. It would also impose a new excise tax and earmark
revenues for substance abuse prevention, research, education, and
health care. Retail sales tax, and part of the excise tax, would go to
the state general fund and local budgets.

New Approach Washington, the campaign supporting I-502, submitted
approximately 350,000 signatures to the Secretary of State's Office at
the end of December -- many more than the 241,153 valid signatures
required to qualify -- so the proposal will be before legislators this
session for their consideration. If the Legislature fails to pass it,
I-502 will go onto the November general election ballot.

As three of I-502's 10 sponsors, we would like to share our
perspectives on why Washington should pass this measure into law.

Our current marijuana laws support a dangerous black market, and I-502
represents an opportunity to catalyze national change.

Like alcohol Prohibition, the criminal prohibition of marijuana has
not only failed to stop its use, it has allowed violent criminal
organizations to reap enormous profits. These profits flow from a
combination of marijuana's popularity among millions of Americans and
grossly inflated black market prices. Turning this weed into a
lucrative commodity that fetches hundreds of dollars per ounce has
helped finance the current drug war in Mexico, which is responsible
for the deaths of more than 40,000 people in the past five years and
destabilization of that nation's government.

Here at home, massive marijuana grows have been discovered in our
Wenatchee and Gifford Pinchot National Forests, damaging our public
lands and putting hikers at risk of confronting armed guards.
Marijuana is smuggled in from Canada by tractor-trailer, boat,
airplane and tunnel. Organized criminals buy residences in suburban
neighborhoods and fill them with gardens, inviting burglaries by
rivals. In 2007, two people were killed in an Everett home used as an
indoor marijuana farm by a ring of growers from Canada.

Forty years of escalating enforcement has neither cut off these supply
lines nor diminished American demand for marijuana. The 750,000
arrests for simple marijuana possession reported nationwide in 2010
represented almost half of all drug arrests combined but just 4
percent of the 17.4 million Americans who admitted using marijuana
within the past 30 days. The notion that smoking a joint should land
you in jail is anachronistic, and it is undermining respect for our
laws and those we ask to enforce them. Meanwhile, police officers and
federal agents continue to risk their lives enforcing an ineffective
law that is succeeding primarily in enriching criminals.

Ultimately, both state and federal marijuana laws need to change, but
Congress is not likely to act until the states take the lead. By
allowing Washington's marijuana consumers to purchase small quantities
- -- an ounce of "bud" at a time -- from regulated, local sources, I-502
represents a reasonable policy proposal that can begin to reduce the
funding stream currently flowing to the cartels. To be sure, law
enforcement will continue to play an important role in driving
criminals from the marijuana market as we transition to a carefully
controlled system, and more states will need to come online before we
can have a significant impact. However, I-502 represents an important
first step in turning the corner on a failed strategy that, like
alcohol Prohibition, needs to be replaced by a tightly regulated legal
market to reduce violence and improve public safety.

I-502 substitutes a cost-effective public health approach for the
current misuse of our criminal justice resources.

Wise use of public resources is a hallmark of good government.
Pragmatism should be the rule rather than the exception, and policy
choices should be regularly reviewed and subjected to objective
cost-benefit analysis. Under such an approach, our current marijuana
laws would not measure up.

Treating marijuana use as a crime, rather than a health issue, is not
a good use of taxpayer dollars. Every marijuana possession arrest
represents time that a police officer could have been walking a beat,
preventing an assault or solving a burglary. Marijuana cases distract
our prosecutors and public defenders from more serious matters. They
clog our courts and waste jail space.

The good news is that we know how to do better. Science and solid
economic analysis tell us that evidence-based education, prevention
and treatment are much more cost-effective strategies for avoiding and
reducing problematic marijuana use than arresting people and locking
them up. Using the criminal justice system to discourage marijuana use
is overkill, an expensive strategy more consistent with a desire to
punish behavior that makes us uncomfortable than a plan for promoting
public health. It's a social, cultural choice rather than one grounded
in science.

Consider, and compare, our approach to tobacco. In 1965, 42.4 percent
of American adults were smokers. In 2010, that number had dropped to
19.3 percent. We have been able to cut smoking rates in half through
public education, advertising controls, labeling requirements and
health care, without arresting anyone for possession of cigarettes.
It's reasonable to believe we can have similar success in discouraging
marijuana abuse with similar strategies.

We can also look to the experience of The Netherlands, where de facto
legalization through "coffee shops" did not, in itself, affect use
rates. Rather, policy changes like lowering and then raising the age
limit, and increasing and then decreasing number of shops that could
be licensed, had direct impacts on use. The same kinds of controls can
be applied here, and it is important to note that youth marijuana use
rates in The Netherlands consistently remain lower than those in the
United States.

In addition to helping preserve vital services like our Basic Health
Plan and community health centers, I-502's new excise tax on marijuana
sales will be used to establish a new marijuana hotline that would
operate similarly to Washington's successful Tobacco Quitline, and
also to establish media-based public education campaigns that provide
medically and scientifically accurate information about the health and
safety risks posed by marijuana use. Marijuana labeling and
advertising will also be required to provide such information, and
advertising will be subject to restrictions that minimize exposure to
people under 21. Finally, a new marijuana DUI threshold will ensure we
communicate a strong message that driving while impaired is not acceptable.

We have sound, cost-effective options for discouraging marijuana abuse
outside the criminal justice system. Let's pass I-502 and put our law
enforcement resources to better use.

I-502 reflects careful consideration of how best to protect children
and adolescents from the risks of marijuana use.

Any proposal to legalize marijuana for adults should include careful
planning for how to minimize the risk to youth, who are more
vulnerable to the health risks posed by marijuana use. I-502 reflects
such considerations. It contains a number of provisions that
incorporate lessons from our successes and failures with alcohol and
tobacco, and it incorporates a plan for evaluation from the outset.

There is reason to find inspiration in our work around youth alcohol
and tobacco prevention strategies. Smoking by high school students has
decreased sharply in the past 15 years, with 36.4 percent reporting
having smoked a cigarette in the preceding 30 days in 1997 but only
19.5 percent in 2009. In 1999, 50 percent of high school students were
current drinkers; that number dropped to 41.8 percent in 2009.
Clearly, prevention can work. It is also possible to change the
prevailing norms regarding youth substance use without criminalizing
adult behavior.

However, relentless promotion of alcoholic beverages, cheap prices and
social norms that remain permissive of underage drinking pose
significant hurdles to further advances. I-502's provisions hew more
closely to the tobacco model, with tighter advertising and labeling
requirements. The initiative also requires regular review of marijuana
tax levels for purposes of facilitating adjustments that would further
the goal of discouraging use while undercutting illegal market prices.
We know that youth are more sensitive to such price adjustments than
adults.

Other important features of I-502 include dedicated funding for the
biennial Healthy Youth Survey, funding for youth prevention and
education strategies, and robust evaluation of the implementation of
the law, including youth use rates, by the Washington State Institute
for Public Policy. Close observation of the law's impacts allows for
informed adjustment as we proceed.

It is possible to design a marijuana law reform proposal that protects
youth while decriminalizing adult use. Initiative 502 is an excellent
example of such an effort, and the process for reviewing and
responding to its impacts is already built in.