<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

Legalize drug possession in Washington? Initiative should be a no-brainer, but expect a fight

By Matt Driscoll, The News Tribune
Published: May 8, 2022, 6:05am

TACOMA — The reasoning behind Sal Mungia’s logic is rock solid, indisputable even.

He knows it. Deep down at least, you know it. And he’s not afraid to say it.

“Ever since we’ve had the War on Drugs, we keep on doing the same thing, and nothing has changed. If anything, (the problem) has gotten worse. … Our current drug laws have not worked,” Mungia told me this week from a hotel room in Atlanta, where he travels annually to teach law.

Mungia, a Tacoma-based attorney and the former president of the Washington State Bar association, is one of the many supporters of a proposed ballot initiative that would decriminalize simple drug possession in Washington. Known as the Substance Use Disorder Prevention and Recovery Act — or I-1922 — the initiative will need at least 324,516 valid signatures by July 8 to appear on the November ballot. The collection of those signatures began this week.

The overarching goal of the initiative, Mungia told me, is to improve public safety and actually help people battling addiction to get better, instead of continuing a cycle of punishment, re-offense and too often death. The change would also help alleviate disparities in the criminal justice system, he said, where Black, brown and Indigenous people are disproportionately arrested on possession charges.

Still, getting I-1922 on the ballot won’t be a cakewalk, Mungia acknowledged — even with clear evidence and what early polling suggest is significant public support on its side

If many Washington voters are ready to try something other than criminal prosecution as the deterrent to a drug epidemic that often feels like it’s out of control — and gaining speed — the initiative also arrives at a time when so many others see lawlessness and a general lack of consequences as the driving force behind all our societal ills.

One less punishment on the books?

Could be a tough sell in some quarters, I suggested.

“I worry about everything, and I worry about that as well,” Mungia said.

“That’s why, for us, it’s really about education. That’s the key.”

I first met Mungia during a similar interview almost exactly two years ago. At the time, he was supporting a nearly identical initiative effort that, in retrospect, was all but doomed from the start. Unable to collect enough signatures during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, that initiative — the Treatment and Recovery Act — failed to make the ballot.

This time around — after being unable to reach the same goal in 2021 via a bill in the state legislature — Mungia and the Substance Use Disorder Prevention and Recovery Act’s supporters are back with a version they hope will finally carry their effort over the hill. The campaign includes Tacoma City Council member Keith Blocker.

As McClatchy’s Shauna Sowersby reported this week, in addition to decriminalizing simple possession illicit drugs like cocaine, heroin, LSD and methamphetamine, I-1922 would use tax revenue from Washington’s legal cannabis market to fund the expansion of prevention, treatment and recovery services. The initiative would also help those with simple possession convictions on their records clear their names, while drug dealing and other related offenses would remain illegal. It’s much like Oregon’s Measure 110 — a first of its kind drug legalization effort in the U.S. — which was overwhelmingly passed by voters to the south two years ago.

On Tuesday, Mungia said there are plenty of reasons to believe I-1922 will be received similarly by Washington voters fed up with the War on Drugs status quo. Citing polling conducted by FM3 Research, he noted that more than 70% of respondents said that drug use and addiction are very serious problems, and roughly the same number said the state’s approach to battling drug use is “a complete failure.” Meanwhile, the exact language that will be used if the initiative qualifies for the November ballot received 53% support.

“I think what we’re seeing in the polling numbers is that more and more people are realizing that drug addictions are a health problem, and it has to be treated that way. You don’t treat a health problem by criminalizing it,” Mungia said. “We believe we have a very good chance at this.”

mobile phone icon
Take the news everywhere you go.
Download The Columbian app:
Download The Columbian app for Android on Google PlayDownload The Columbian app for iOS on the Apple App Store

“Nothing’s certain, obviously. You never know what might happen,” he added

Mungia is exactly right — about all of it — but here’s one thing that seems safe to bet on in the coming weeks and months.

While it’s unsurprising to hear that a strong majority of polled voters believe the state’s approach to drug use hasn’t worked — because, I mean, look around — the initiative is unlikely to be judged solely on its own merits in the court of public opinion, as unfortunate as that may be.

Crime is up. Homelessness is all around. The very fabric that holds society together feels like it’s fraying.

To get I-1922 on the ballot — let alone win in November — Mungia and the initiative’s supporters won’t just have to be convincing. They’ll have to overcome some of our worst instincts, including the base temptation to crack down on the sick, and the frustrating, and the broken, and all those who need a helping hand — whether they deserve it or not.

“What I’m saying is, our current drug laws have not worked. It’s not like you can point to me and say, ‘Sal, look at the stiff penalties we have, and because of those stiff penalties we don’t have a drug problem. ‘You’re telling me you want to get rid of those stiff penalties?’” Mungia said. “That’s not the world we live in. We live in a world where we have these stiff penalties, and we have a bad drug abuse situation. It’s time for a change.”

No argument here.

But as the Substance Use Disorder Prevention and Recovery Act starts collecting signatures, that won’t always be the case.

Loading...