Pubdate: Tue, 13 Oct 2015
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Evan Halper

GETTING THE DOPE ON MARIJUANA

Political Operatives Help Perplexed Lawmakers Understand Changes in 
Attitudes About Legalization.

WASHINGTON - After all the avoidance, the awkwardness and the 
blunders, it was obvious that help was needed: Someone had to explain 
to these people how to talk about drugs. Evan Vucci

Few conversations flummox members of Congress more than the one over 
legalizing marijuana. As public opinion rapidly shifts, lawmakers 
have ducked, dodged and bobbed. The prevailing Capitol Hill mindset 
is that pot is a political loser. The country is divided, the 
thinking goes, and the safe path is to sidestep the minefield.

Increasingly, however, avoidance does not work. As more states 
legalize either medical or recreational marijuana use, members of 
Congress are being asked to take positions. The results are often 
cringe-worthy.

So this year, in an over-air-conditioned third-floor Capitol hearing 
room, an unlikely team of political operatives took it upon 
themselves to school congressional staff on how their bosses can have 
"the talk" with voters.

"Members of Congress are extremely bad about talking about this," 
said Sarah Trumble, policy counsel at Third Way, an establishment 
think tank that usually tries to pull politicians away from the 
fringe. The message the group was delivering was that pot is no 
longer fringe. It's mainstream, Trumble said, and avoidance by 
Congress is undermining efforts by states that are trying to be 
responsible in how they legalize.

The group has taken upon itself the job of helping moderates find 
safe passage into the discussion, attaching its brand to the pot 
lobby along the way.

It's a strange partnership. Die-hard toker-rights crusaders from such 
places as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws 
and the Marijuana Policy Project find themselves working in tandem 
with buttoned-down establishment wonks better known for warning 
Democrats against straying left.

"A lot of politicians don't have a position on marijuana, and their 
first impulse is to say 'no,' " said Michael Correia, a lobbyist for 
the National Cannabis Industry Assn. "When someone digs deep into the 
polling the way Third Way has done, they are able to see what people 
are actually thinking, and it is a lot easier for a politician to 
develop a message."

Third Way stepped into the fray after witnessing lawmakers - many of 
them the group's allies on other issues - who clearly had no idea 
what they were talking about when they tried to respond to questions 
about marijuana policy.

"Reactions would range from giggles to saying something incorrect 
that needed to be corrected, and then corrected again, and then 
corrected again," said Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, who heads the 
advocacy group's marijuana effort.

Among the biggest stumblers was House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer 
of Maryland, who responded to a question last year about drug 
decriminalization by saying that a show of hands at a news conference 
would illustrate how many people can be affected by drug laws.

He raised his own hand and said, "the use thereof, the trying thereof 
- - inhaling or not."

Hoyer's aides later whipped into damage control and asserted that 
under no circumstances had the veteran lawmaker ever smoked marijuana.

"They did not know how to navigate it," Erickson Hatalsky said. "The 
question we asked was: What can we do for moderate Democrats on 
this?" A lot, it turned out. The group called in pollsters. And 
consultants. And coalition builders. After a blizzard of online focus 
groups, the drawing up of some peculiar word clouds, a lot of 
meetings and some intense data analysis, they developed a coherent 
message for lawmakers.

The take-away: A huge "marijuana middle" of moderate voters are all 
for medical pot and have doubts about recreational pot but might be 
convinced that the federal government should let states go their own way.

Carping about a failed "war on drugs" doesn't fly with these voters, 
they found. Nor does carrying on about state's rights.

The discussion needs to shift, Third Way told lawmakers, to the 
problem of dated federal laws that have gotten in the way of states 
imposing strict rules on the legal sale and use of pot.

"It's been critical not to have just groups like the Marijuana Policy 
Project advocating for this, but a mainstream group that specializes 
in talking to the middle," said Rep. Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat 
who has been at the forefront of the legalization movement.

The more moderate approach has helped crusaders like Polis enlist 
more cautious lawmakers like Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), who 
represents a district that stretches from the Seattle suburbs north 
to the Canadian border.

DelBene on Friday introduced what she described as a common-sense 
measure that would give states like hers that have legalized 
marijuana a three-year waiver from the main federal drug control law 
if they impose tough regulations on the pot trade.

"There are a lot of areas where federal law makes it difficult for 
states like Washington to move forward and understand what a truly 
regulated environment would look like," she said.

The more nuanced approach is also drawing in senior legislators like 
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), a longtime field lieutenant in the 
war on drugs. Schumer now supports allowing states to legalize and is 
cosponsoring medical pot legislation that would change federal rules 
so that marijuana is no longer treated as a narcotic as dangerous as 
heroin and LSD.

All that alarms opponents of legalization who warn that the lofty 
talk of responsibility and moderation is creating a dangerous smokescreen.

Academics and political strategists may be well meaning in their 
attempt to "find the least bad way to legalize," but they are 
ultimately boosting a dangerous industry, said Kevin Sabet, president 
of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

"At the end of the day, it doesn't take much to reframe the debate 
from responsible-sounding words like 'regulation' and 'control' to 
the true reality of the policy on the ground-pot lollipops, 
widespread advertising, and secondhand-smoke exposure," he wrote in 
an email. "I can't think of one moderate Democrat that would want to 
be associated with any of that."

Third Way argues the greater risk lies in not touching the issue. Too 
many states have already moved toward legalizing, the group argues. 
The trend suggests the majority of states could be there by 2020.

"A significant majority of voters believes legalization of marijuana 
is inevitable," said Graham Boyd, a strategist who guided state 
legalization efforts and was enlisted by Third Way to help engage Congress.

"This is a change we all know is coming. So the conversation has 
quickly shifted to, 'How do we get there?' "
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom