How far are we willing to go with drug legalization? Are Washington ballot measures next?

One more from the election, if you can stand it.

Often in an election the best indicators of the most compelling or contentious issues can be found not in the office races or among the candidates, but in the ballot measures. It’s there that you learn where the country, and society, might be headed.

Washington, which in past years has been an enthusiastic participant in the initiative and referendum process, was comparatively quiet this cycle, with just one on the ballot. But in our neighbor to the south, the even more initiative-mad state of Oregon, the 2020 ballot included two measures on an issue that got barely a mention in the presidential race but which is hugely significant to millions of Americans.

That issue: drug enforcement policy.

One of the Oregon measures authorized the Oregon Health Authority “to create a program to permit licensed service providers to administer psilocybin-producing mushroom and fungi products to individuals 21 years of age or older,” according to Ballotpedia.org. It passed comfortably with more than 55 percent of the vote.

The other makes “personal non-commercial possession of a controlled substance no more than a Class E violation (max fine of $100 fine) and establishing a drug addiction treatment and recovery program funded in part by the state’s marijuana tax revenue and state prison savings,” again from Ballotpedia. Measure 110 was even more successful at the polls, garnering more than 58 percent of the vote.

Oregon wasn’t alone in putting drug measures up for a vote on the November ballot. Arizona had a marijuana legalization initiative; Mississippi had a medical marijuana proposal. Montana had two issues, one for legalization and another to set a legal age for use of marijuana. Legalization of marijuana was also on the ballots in New Jersey and South Dakota (the latter for both medical and recreational). Washington, D.C., meanwhile, voted on an initiative to “declare that police shall treat the non-commercial cultivation, distribution, possession, and use of entheogenic plants and fungi — including psilocybin mushrooms, also known as magic mushrooms or shrooms, peyote, and iboga — among the lowest law enforcement priorities,” Ballotpedia reported.

All of those ballot measures were approved.

And since they were, similar proposals can be expected in other states, not just for marijuana but for other substances. Who knew, for example, that magic mushrooms were the next frontier for the relaxation of drug policies? Expect to see Washington, which has been through this debate previously with marijuana, revisit the broader issue of drug enforcement either via the ballot or legislatively.

Why is this a topic for a business and economics news column? For starters, illegal drugs turned semi-respectable citizens are a big business. Just the tax revenue and license fees from marijuana sales to state government in Washington amounted to $395 million in fiscal year 2019. The amounts of money spent on drug enforcement are huge. The societal costs of drug consumption and drug-related crime are huge too.

That is going to pose some challenging choices and uncomfortable conversations about the balance between personal freedom, public health, societal order and business and government revenue.

(A personal note to illustrate the complexities and contradictions of this issue. As a political conservative with libertarian leanings, I get that the consumption of substances is no one else’s business, especially the government’s, as long as no one else is getting hurt. I understand the logical contradiction between policies on drugs and alcohol, which is capable of as much harm to self and others in the wrong hands. I know from history the futility of trying to prohibit humans from ingesting mind-altering substances. The highways of America are dangerous enough without adding to the population of those operating motor vehicles while under the influence of some substance or beverage. And I would agree that conventional approaches of arresting users hasn’t accomplished much and isn’t likely to.

But: as a parent, I can’t help feel a little resentful that, in the midst of a highly corrosive culture, our kids are getting one more signal that drug use is no big deal. Relapse rates and treatment successes are also not encouraging in the belief that decriminalization will produce better results than current approaches do. End of personal rant.)

The continuing drive to decriminalize or legalize entirely the manufacture, sale and use of certain drugs will test the electorate’s boundaries: at what point does society say, “okay, that’s as far as we’re willing to go.” Are there boundaries anymore? It would appear there still are some, but it varies by substance. Even as marijuana is legalized, ever tighter and more expensive restrictions are placed on the use of tobacco.

Business is in for some tests too. Right now, and for a variety of reasons including regulatory, marijuana-product retailing in Washington is confined to small businesses. Is there a point at which the amount of money being spent on those products is just too tempting to leave to the small players? Will business overcome qualms about reputational damage and clamor to be allowed in? It’s not inconceivable, certainly not now. Alcohol producers have at times been vilified and banned outright; today no one blinks an eye at them, and they range in size from the smallest garage operation to the biggest conglomerates. Then again, some businesses are racking up billions of dollars in liability bills in connection with the abuse of legal opioid medications, and that may scare away entrants from the business.

But it won’t discourage supporters of various causes and crusades from introducing more ballot measures to test the public’s sentiment on those issues. Some may prove just too far ahead or out there for voters to say yes. On the issue of drug legalization and law enforcement, the voters of 2020 displayed in appetite for more. Now the question is how much more they’re willing to bite — and what hitherto banned items might be on the menu.

— Bill Virgin is editor and publisher of Washington Manufacturing Alert and Pacific Northwest Rail News. He can be reached at bill.virgin@yahoo.com.