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The campaign behind an effort to decriminalize drugs and expand treatment and recovery services in Washington State has halted its push to qualify an initiative for November\u2019s ballot.<\/p>\n
Instead, Commit to Change WA told supporters in an email Monday, advocates will focus on the next year\u2019s legislative session.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not be moving forward to qualify Washington State Initiative Measure No. 1922 to the November 8 general election ballot,\u201d the group said. \u201cSignature gathering proved more challenging and prohibitively expensive than projected.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is especially hard news for us, because we were going to win,\u201d the email continued, pointing to new polling<\/a> conducted this month indicating that 67 percent of likely Washington voters would have voted for the measure after reading the ballot language. Twenty-two percent said they would vote against it and 11 percent were undecided.<\/p>\n The survey, conducted by Data for Progress, found that strong majorities of Democrats and independents, along with a plurality of Republicans, back the decriminalization measure.<\/p>\n Looking ahead to the next legislative session, the poll also shows that 56 percent of likely voters say they are more likely to support candidates for elected office who back removing criminal penalties for low-level drug possession.<\/p>\n \u201cThough the proposed Initiative 1922 will no longer be on Washington ballots this November, legislators in the state must note that Washington voters are ready to end the War on Drugs and want to start treating substance use issues with compassion and data-backed policies,\u201d the polling memo concludes.<\/p>\n If the proposed ballot initiative, I-1922<\/a>, had become law, it would have eliminated the state\u2019s existing penalties around possession and use of all drugs. Authorities could still seize illegal substances, but law enforcement would then have to refer individuals to outreach services, where people could access treatment and be connected with other support programs.<\/p>\n The proposal would also expunge past convictions for drug possession and use, removing blemishes from criminal records that can prevent people from finding jobs, securing housing and going to school.\u00a0And it would pour millions in state funds, including a major portion of cannabis tax revenue, to expand outreach, treatment and long-term recovery services to support people with substance use disorder.<\/p>\n The failure to put the policy choice to voters means lawmakers will have drug policy on their to-do list next year. Due to a hasty lawmaking process following a surprise state Supreme Court decision in February 2021 that invalidated the state\u2019s felony law against drug possession<\/a>, the state\u2019s current prohibition on having drugs\u2014now a misdemeanor\u2014is set to expire on July 1, 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n For now, however, the missed initiative goal is another frustrating setback for those in the state who\u2019d like to see a more health-centered approach to drug use disorders. Commit to Change WA, an ACLU-sponsored coalition of dozens of individuals and local groups (formerly organized under the name Treatment First WA), has been working for years to shift the state\u2019s conversation on drugs toward treatment and harm reduction.<\/p>\n In 2020, the same year voters in neighboring Oregon passed a similar ballot measure to decriminalize drugs<\/a> and fund access to treatment and harm reduction services, Washington advocates were working to qualify a similar measure. But the outbreak of COVID-19\u00a0interrupted that year\u2019s signature gathering effort<\/a>\u00a0and organizers turned their focus to the legislature<\/a>.<\/p>\n After months of delay, state lawmakers last session\u00a0introduced House Bill 1499<\/a>, which included many of the group\u2019s suggestions. But the bill failed to advance out of committee before a legislative deadline. Just weeks afterward, the state Supreme Court\u2019s surprise ruling sent lawmakers scrambling back to the drafting board to replace the state\u2019s drug law anyway.<\/p>\n The new law, which\u00a0took effect in May 2021<\/a>, was widely seen by advocates as a half-step toward meaningful reform by reducing the state\u2019s felony charge for drug possession to a misdemeanor and earmarking more money for treatment. The 2023 expiration date on its criminal penalties was intended to give lawmakers more time to consider how and whether to alter the state\u2019s underlying approach to drugs.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has been a long and winding road,\u201d Commit to Change WA said in its email to supporters on Monday. \u201cWe\u2019re sad not to be able to give you the opportunity this November to weigh in on Washington\u2019s approach to drug use and substance use disorder, but we\u2019re counting on you being ready to weigh in with the legislature in January.\u201d<\/p>\n The campaign did not respond to follow up questions sent by Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n Rep. Roger Goodman (D), a longtime proponent of ending the drug war who helped write the current law\u2019s expiration provisions, didn\u2019t reply to an email from Marijuana Moment on Monday asking how the failure of I-1922 to qualify for the ballot might affect the coming legislative session.<\/p>\n The lawmaker told Marijuana Moment in April of last year<\/a> that he believed that by 2023, his more skeptical colleagues might be more willing to accept a move away from punitive drug policies.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conversation on the failure of the drug war only keeps going the same direction. We\u2019re almost at the tipping point now where we are at a completely new paradigm,\u201d Goodman said at the time.\u00a0\u201cTwo years from now, that conversation will mature further and be even more progressive. The voters and the legislators and the public will be moving that direction. We have to go slow and steady, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n While the year ahead could still be pivotal for drug policy in Washington, it\u2019s not clear how changes in the political winds might affect chances for major reform. Polling released earlier this year showed a 10-point upswing<\/a> in Washington voters identifying as Republicans, and voter registration data from 43 states indicates that more than a million voters have switched their registration to the GOP.<\/p>\n Earlier polling in April of this year released by the Commit to Change campaign, meanwhile, indicated that while certain issues had voters\u2019 attention\u2014such as homelessness, problem drug use and drug dependency, and drug overdoses\u2014poll respondents were comparatively unconcerned about police violence against the poor and people of color or too many people being arrested and imprisoned.<\/p>\n Commit to Change WA<\/p>\n<\/div>\n State lawmakers briefly considered a bill this earlier this year that would have\u00a0legalized what the legislation called \u201csupported psilocybin experiences\u201d<\/a>\u00a0for adults 21 and older. But that proposal failed to pass out of committee by a legislative deadline.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a separate group of Washington activists launched a psilocybin ballot initiative<\/a> this year but also recently announced<\/a> they will not succeed in placing the measure before voters in 2022.<\/p>\n White House Drug Czar Recognizes Medical Value Of Marijuana And Says Biden Admin Remains Committed To Cannabis Reform<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Washington State Activists Call Off Drug Decriminalization Ballot Effort Even As New Poll Shows Voter Support<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The campaign behind an effort to decriminalize drugs and expand treatment and recovery services in Washington State has halted its push to qualify an initiative for November\u2019s ballot. Instead, Commit to Change WA told supporters in an email Monday, advocates will focus on the next year\u2019s legislative session. \u201cWe willContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":55500,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55501,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55499\/revisions\/55501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Polling](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/ScreenShot2022-06-27at2.32.46PM.png\")
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\nRead More: Washington State Activists Call Off Drug Decriminalization Ballot Effort Even As New Poll Shows Voter Support<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"