Most Washington Voters Support Drug Decriminalization Ballot Measure, Poll Finds

As a signature drive kicks off in Washington State to qualify a drug decriminalization measure for November’s poll, newly launched opinion polling from advocates exhibits the proposal with a slight lead. However practically 1 in 6 voters, the survey suggests, are nonetheless on the fence.

Initiative 1922, if handed, would take away Washington’s penalties for drug possession and direct greater than $140 million yearly in state funds towards expanded outreach, remedy and restoration providers for individuals with substance use problems. Much like Oregon’s Measure 110, which voters there handed in 2020, it represents a shift away from the felony drug struggle and towards a harm-reduction mannequin.

Decide to Change WA, an ACLU of Washington–backed coalition of advocates and organizations, has already raised greater than $1.5 million to assist the would-be initiative, in line with the state Public Disclosure Fee. To qualify the measure for November’s poll, the group wants to collect a minimum of 324,516 legitimate voter signatures by July 8. It not too long ago posted job listings for workers at six workplaces throughout the state.

In a name final week with reporters earlier than the signature-gathering launch, I-1922 proponents mentioned Washington voters broadly acknowledge that the state’s drug legal guidelines—which till final 12 months labeled most straightforward drug possession as a felony—have failed to handle downside drug use whereas on the similar time perpetuating discrimination and racism towards Black, brown and Indigenous communities.

“If I can discuss to a, you recognize, dyed-in-the-wool, previous, Jap Washington sheriff’s deputy, and so they have a look at me and say, ‘Yeah, what we’re doing isn’t working,’ I do know we’re prepared to handle this,” mentioned Everett Maroon, a member of Decide to Change’s steering committee and the chief director of a Walla Walla healthcare nonprofit.

Dave Metz of California-based FM3 Analysis mentioned the group had performed a couple of dozen polls over the previous few years to gauge how voters really feel about drug reform and associated points, “and the info has been very constant.”

“Washington voters are involved about substance use dysfunction within the state, however they consider that the method that we’re presently taking, of criminalizing drug possession, has been a demonstrated failure,” Metz mentioned. “They’re wanting to embrace a brand new method, one which takes a public well being path towards addressing problematic drug use, and this initiative effectively embodies the values that Washington voters want to see enacted.”

In line with a survey from March of this 12 months, 46 % of respondents would “positively” or “in all probability” vote for the initiative primarily based on its poll abstract, whereas 37 % would “positively” or “in all probability” vote towards it. One other 17 % answered that they have been undecided, with 6 % leaning sure, 2 % leaning no, and 9 % fully undecided.

Bearing in mind the leanings, the marketing campaign described the initiative as having “slim majority assist” of 53 % because the signature-gathering drive launches.

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The outline of the measure used within the survey is taken from the state legal professional common’s poll title for the initiative. Final month the title survived a authorized problem from an opponent who described drug use within the state as “uncontrolled” and claimed the proposal would “legalize” medication outright.

Whereas the possession of medicine wouldn’t be topic to felony penalties, police may nonetheless seize unlawful substances they encounter, and most different drug-related offenses—together with industrial sale and trafficking—would stay prohibited. Slightly than cost individuals caught with medication, regulation enforcement would refer them to remedy and different assist providers.

The proposal would additionally expunge previous convictions for drug possession and use, eradicating blemishes from felony information that may stop individuals from discovering jobs, securing housing and going to high school.

When it comes to remedy, I-1922 would route greater than $141 million in new annual funding to providers. Of that, $115 million would go to the state well being care authority to pay for substance use dysfunction evaluations, prevention, outreach and engagement and restoration assist. One other $10 million would pay for “hurt discount providers, provides, and staffing assist at native hurt discount organizations.” Different spending would fund public training campaigns, testing medication for regulation enforcement and members of the general public, regulation enforcement coaching and the staffing of a state advisory committee.

Proponents have labored for years to attract consideration to what they are saying is a necessity for the state to step up outreach and long-term restoration providers to deal with individuals with substance use problems. Whereas Washington funds remedy providers higher than many different states, they are saying, outreach and long-term restoration are missing, which means many individuals who need assistance are unaware of obtainable sources or can’t discover sustained assist after leaving remedy packages.

Polling launched by the marketing campaign confirmed excessive concern amongst Washingtonians round areas equivalent to homelessness, downside drug use and drug dependency, housing prices and drug overdoses. However different points associated to I-1922—together with excessive arrest and incarceration charges in addition to police violence towards low-income individuals and other people of shade—have been comparatively low.

Decide to Change WA

The ballot additionally discovered that 71 % of respondents consider that “the easiest way to handle drug use is thru engagement, healthcare, remedy and restoration providers addressing the foundation causes of dependancy,” with 23 % saying that the easiest way to deal with drug use is to “hold it against the law, letting police take drug addicts off the road.”

Carmen Pacheo-Jones, a Decide to Change steering committee member and founder and govt director of the Well being and Justice Restoration Alliance, mentioned on final week’s press name that she spent a number of years biking out and in of incarceration earlier than lastly being linked with assist providers.

“At no level did anyone say, ‘Would you prefer to go to remedy?’” Pacheo-Jones mentioned. “And after I lastly did go to remedy, I used to be capable of get clear, restore my relationship with my kids, start working and stay a useful life.”

Nationally, assist has been rising to finish felony penalties for medication. A ballot launched final month by the progressive teams Knowledge for Progress and the Folks’s Motion Institute, for instance, discovered that a robust majority of voters, together with most Republicans, favor decriminalization. Extra individuals additionally assist harm-reduction efforts, such entry to naloxone—which may reverse opioid overdoses—and overdose-prevention websites, the place individuals can extra safely use medication and be linked with remedy and different providers meant to handle the underlying causes of drug use.

In Oregon, Measure 110 has already greater than halved whole drug arrests and created greater than $300 million in funding for providers—together with remedy, hurt discount, peer assist and housing and employment help—of which a minimum of $31.4 million had been paid to suppliers as of February.

Decide to Change WA

“It’s time to cease destroying the futures of our younger individuals—particularly Black and brown youngsters—over a small mistake,” Michelle Merriweather, president and CEO of the City League of Metropolitan Seattle, mentioned in a press launch. “Initiative 1922 won’t solely present remedy and restoration providers for individuals who want them most but additionally cut back racial disparities inside the felony authorized system and the lifelong penalties that include an arrest.”

Decide to Change WA has tried repeatedly lately to shift Washington’s method to drug use from a crime-control paradigm to a public-health mannequin. In 2020, when it was referred to as Remedy First WA, the group tried to qualify a separate decriminalization and remedy measure for that 12 months’s state poll. However the outbreak of COVID-19 interrupted the signature gathering effort and organizers shifted their focus to the legislature.

After months of delay, state lawmakers final session launched Home Invoice 1499, which included lots of the group’s solutions. However the invoice did not advance out of committee earlier than a legislative deadline.

Shortly thereafter, the state Supreme Court docket overturned Washington’s felony regulation towards drug possession utterly, sending lawmakers scrambling to exchange the regulation with little time left within the legislative session. Finally they accepted a modest reform, lowering the state’s felony cost for drug possession to a misdemeanor and earmarking extra money for remedy. However the regulation’s felony penalties will expire in 2023, an effort to encourage lawmakers to revisit the coverage.

The regulation, which took impact final Might, was broadly seen by advocates as a half-step towards significant reform. Many known as on lawmakers to additional put money into outreach and restoration and urged additional dismantling of the felony drug struggle.

Washington State lawmakers additionally briefly thought of a invoice this session that may have legalized what the laws known as “supported psilocybin experiences” for adults 21 and older. That proposal, nevertheless, did not move out of committee by a deadline earlier this month.

A separate potential poll measure geared toward qualifying for November’s poll would legalize psilocybin, the principle lively part of psychedelic mushrooms, to be used by adults 21 and over in settings with educated facilitators. That proposal, Initiative 1886, is backed by a special group, the political motion committee ADAPT-WA, and is much like the laws launched earlier this 12 months. That poll drive has raised far much less monetary assist than the decrim proposal, nevertheless—about $10,000, in line with state information.

On the native degree, Seattle not too long ago grew to become the biggest U.S. metropolis to decriminalize psychedelics following a Metropolis Council decision in October.

Learn the complete Washington drug decriminalization polling memo beneath: