In this Monday, Nov. 26, 2012 photo, travel guide author and marijuana legalization supporter Rick Steves holds a campaign sign in his office in Edmonds, Wash next to a door covered with marijuana leaf-shaped notes from his staff congratulating him on the passage of a referendum legalizing marijuana in the state. In the late-1980s heyday of the "Just Say No" campaign, a man calling himself “Jerry” appeared on a Seattle radio station’s midday talk show, using a pseudonym because he was a businessman, afraid of what his customers would think if they heard him criticizing U.S. marijuana laws. A quarter century later, "Jerry" had no problem using his real name - Rick Steves - as one of the main forces behind Washington’s successful ballot measure to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana for adults over 21. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
Strategy, timing key to states' pot legalization
In this Monday, Nov. 26, 2012 photo, travel guide author and marijuana legalization supporter Rick Steves holds a campaign sign in his office in Edmonds, Wash next to a door covered with marijuana leaf-shaped notes from his staff congratulating him on the passage of a referendum legalizing marijuana in the state. In the late-1980s heyday of the "Just Say No" campaign, a man calling himself “Jerry” appeared on a Seattle radio station’s midday talk show, using a pseudonym because he was a businessman, afraid of what his customers would think if they heard him criticizing U.S. marijuana laws. A quarter century later, "Jerry" had no problem using his real name - Rick Steves - as one of the main forces behind Washington’s successful ballot measure to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana for adults over 21. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
By By GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press /
December 2, 2012
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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 — charged with carrying out U.S. drug laws.
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.
Over the next year, a voter initiative drive and legislative efforts gained steam but ultimately failed. California’s Proposition 19 legalization measure also failed in 2010. But even with little money and no significant editorial endorsements, in an off-presidential election year with lower youth turnout, Prop 19 received more than 46 percent of the vote.
Holcomb thought: Imagine what Washington could do in a presidential year, with an endorsement from McKay and some money.
So, with the backing of the ACLU’s state chapter, Holcomb formed New Approach Washington. In June 2011, the group announced Initiative 502, to legalize up to an ounce of marijuana and to create a system of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores. It was tailored to gain mainstream support: There would be no home-growing, and there would be a DUI standard designed to be comparable to the 0.08 limit for blood-alcohol content.
The drug also would be taxed at every stage, from growing and processing to selling. State studies were done showing legalization could bring in half a billion dollars a year for schools, health care and substance-abuse prevention.
The list of co-sponsors was unimpeachable: Steves, McKay, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, the former top public health officer for Spokane County, two past presidents of the state bar association, a top University of Washington addiction expert. The Seattle Times’ editorial page offered its own endorsement.
National drug-policy reform groups also were focusing on 2012. The New York-based Drug Policy Alliance saw campaigns developing in three states — Washington, Colorado and Oregon — and it had the money on-the-ground advocates so desperately needed. The alliance is funded in part by billionaire and longtime liberal political donor George Soros, who came out in favor of marijuana legalization in 2010.
The organization chipped in more than $1.6 million in Washington. The Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project gave $1 million in Colorado.
Then came another big donor. Peter Lewis, the founder of Progressive Insurance, had used marijuana after a leg amputation and had been a big contributor to medical marijuana campaigns. His people initially told Holcomb they didn’t think I-502 would pass, but then he offered a match: If they could raise $650,000, he'd kick in $250,000. New Approach Washington met the goal, and Lewis became the campaign’s biggest donor, responsible for more than $2 million of the $6 million raised.
The money ensured that Washington’s activists could keep their message on air, and they did so effectively.
The first television ad, which aired last summer, featured a middle-aged mom saying that she didn’t like marijuana, but that taxing it would bring in money for schools and health care and free up police resources. Among women aged 30 to 50, Holcomb says, support for regulating marijuana jumped about 18 percent.
The next ads featured McKay, former Seattle U.S. Attorney Kate Pflaumer and Charles Mandigo, the former head of the FBI office in Seattle, urging approval of I-502.
Colorado’s measure didn’t have the big-name endorsements that Washington’s did, but the state had other things going for it. For one, it already had the most highly regulated medical marijuana market in the country. There, organizers were careful to appear before news cameras in suits and ties. Ads featured middle-aged women, or schoolchildren who could benefit from marijuana taxes.
Opponents tried to fight back, mounting a $543,000 campaign in Colorado, with backing from a Florida-based anti-drug group and an evangelical Christian group.
In Washington, a small group from the medical marijuana community raised $6,800 to oppose I-502. They criticized the DUI standard as arbitrarily strict and said the measure didn’t go far enough because it wouldn’t allow home-growing.Continued...
