Justice Reform Network

Roger Goodman

    For three days an exciting mix of lay persons and experts from a dozen countries presented, listened, debated or just mingled in the halls of the old French Quarter Astor Hotel.
        There were Belgians and Dutch, Mexicans, Canadians and Indoiansese, Brits and Hungarians. The similarities of their stories was almost more amazing than the differences,
     Of course it was informative to hear the viewpoints of administrators talking about public pressure on the pot-smoking coffee shops of Amsterdam. (Where the level of drug use is lower than in nearby states with highly restrictive and punitive drug laws).
      But when I tossed all eighteen of the remarkable presentations I had listened to into my hat the ones that came up as the most hopeful and refreshing were those of some local U.S. guys.   One was State representative Roger Goodman of Washington State.
      Roger ran a great panel asking the hard questions of where a new social and legal order on drug use might be going and where it might run into trouble.

But it was his own political story that stirred me.

So, It Can Be Done!
         When Roger decided to run for office a couple of years ago he had already had a lot of drug policy experience. As director of the King County Bar Association Drug Policy Project Roger had a good grasp of the kinds of reforms needed in the system when he agreed to run for the state legislature.
          Roger thought honesty might even be refreshing to the voters- He already had quite a public record of his opinions on drug reform. So he let them have it.
       Speaking for the King County Bar Assoc. Drug Policy Project which he chairs here is what he had already said:
           “One of our guiding principles is that the degree of state regulation and control of a particular substance should be commensurate with the harm associated with that substance. Now, harm is a loaded word, but you can reduce it down to something measurable. And what we are talking about is primary harm -- direct negative consequences for the user or others -- not secondary harm, and not the fact that someone may be offended by drug use. Other than reasonable regulations, such as on places of consumption or hours of sales, we are basically following the traditions of the state in not interfering in the affairs of its citizens.”
      With Roger sticking his neck out that far, his opponent’s campaign ads at once swung to the old emotional drug scare attack.
     “What Roger is really running for is State Director of Drug Dealing.”
“ Roger is the candidate for the stoners and head shops–but is he one for us?”
        Every politician knows that “soft on drugs” translates politically to “soft on crime", that pushing issues like drug regulation, legalization and treatment is a political death wish.
      But, to every one’s surprise, the more intense the negative attacks became the more Goodman’s ratings went up in the polls and, in the end, he won handily.
       To grasp the full significance of his victory one must understand that King County isn’t San Francisco- it isn’t even Seattle.
      Its fairly conservative population is a mix of upper middle class suburbanites, farmers and working class homeowners, a classic American landscape.
      Sometimes it can come as a shock when honesty and logic actually penetrate the fog of hysteria and prejudice, especially to reach a conservative electorate on an issue like drug reform.
      One wants to believe that Roger is a bellwether for a new direction, an indicator of a turning of the tide in our society’s political attitudes toward drugs.

Goodman is now vice chair of The House Judiciary Committee in the Washington State Legislature as well as director of the King County Bar Assoc. Drug Project.