For years as a reformer and a legislator I’ve been promoting a workable exit strategy from the War on Drugs, pointing to the extravagant waste of public money that has only made the “drug problem” worse. In the Legislature I’ve been working to get the state to conduct an “impact assessment” of our drug policies – a cost/benefit analysis, in other words. Once we can actually quantify the staggering public costs and the only marginal social benefits of this failed policy, I believe we can advocate with greater certainly why we need to change the policy.
This year I finally succeeded in securing funds in the state budget for the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (WSIPP), the nationally-renowned research arm of our state legislature, to conduct this cost/benefit analysis on the War on Drugs. The budget proviso directed the WSIPP “to study the costs and benefits to state and local governments and the citizens of Washington from implementation of the state’s policies on controlled substances, excluding alcohol, tobacco and pharmaceuticals.” I was thrilled – finally we could know how much we’re all paying to prosecute the War on Drugs in Washington, and what we’re getting for our money.
Well, the other day the Governor’s Office let me know that the Governor specifically 
vetoed this budget provision! She asserted that “the reality is these are controlled substances under federal law. It is unwise to spend taxpayer dollars on a study that cannot address fundamental issues in this policy area.”
What! Only a federal matter? Drug penalties are a matter of state law and Washington taxpayers are footing the bill! We urgently need to find out what kind of return we’re getting on our tax dollar. I’m just stewing over this … the Governor digging all the way into that little line item in the budget just to veto it. What is she afraid of? Afraid to find out what it really costs us to maintain drug prohibition?
I’m not giving up – we have another budget bill to pass in the next year. I’d like Washington State to take the lead in investing our scarce resources more wisely when it comes to drug policies. The proposed cost/benefit analysis that the Governor vetoed would have been the first and finest fiscal analysis of the War on Drugs in the entire U.S. I’ll be working with my legislative colleagues in the upcoming year to get this critical study done – let’s get the facts so we can make our drug policies more “evidence-based.” Stay tuned!
-State Representative Roger Goodman (D-WA)
Candidate for United States Congress
