ICYMI: Previous drug decriminalization stance dogs Ferguson in WA gov race | Seattle Times
September 16, 2024
BELLEVUE, WA – In case you missed it, the Seattle Times published a piece highlighting the makeover career-politician Bob Ferguson has given himself as he runs for governor.
Ferguson is spending millions to brand himself as a crusader against the fentanyl crisis and hoping voters will ignore the fact that he advocated for the decriminalization of the poisonous drug just three years ago.
Ferguson’s preferred policy of decriminalization would have undoubtedly made the crisis even worse. Ferguson’s stance is so out of step with Washington voters, he has resorted to lies and smears of Dave Reichert’s record to distract from the issue.
Unfortunately for him, voters are smarter than he thinks.
Read the full Seattle Times report here.
Previous drug decriminalization stance dogs Ferguson in WA gov race
By Jim Brunner and Claire Withycombe
Three years ago, Attorney General Bob Ferguson planted himself firmly in the camp of drug-law reformers who favored decriminalizing possession of small amounts of drugs including fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.
It was early 2021 and the state Supreme Court had just struck down the state’s law making it a felony to possess illegal drugs, ruling it was unconstitutionally strict.
The court’s decision threw the state’s legal system into turmoil and prompted calls for state lawmakers to pass a new law reimposing some level of criminal drug-possession penalties. Ferguson, notably, took the opposite stance, siding with civil rights groups in urging the Legislature to adopt a “new approach” and step away from prosecuting people struggling with drug addiction.
He portrayed it at the time as forward-looking — a step back from the nation’s failed War on Drugs — which he predicted would be followed in coming years by other states.
But he has since backed away from that position as the political climate shifted and a similar decriminalization policy in Oregon yielded poor results and public blowback.
As he runs for governor, Ferguson’s critics don’t want voters to forget his previous drug-decriminalization support, arguing it calls into question his newfound emphasis on public safety.
State Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, who ran for governor as a moderate alternative candidate, repeatedly slammed Ferguson on the issue, but failed to advance past the August primary, finishing a distant fourth.
It came up again last week, during the first televised gubernatorial debate, as his opponent Dave Reichert, the former congressman and King County sheriff, sought to tie Ferguson to the state’s ongoing fentanyl crisis. Reichert brought up fentanyl several times in Tuesday night’s debate, referring to Ferguson’s past support for drug decriminalization.
In response to a question about homelessness, Reichert called it a “substance abuse crisis” and said Ferguson “supported the legislation that legalized drugs on the streets of our cities across this state, he legalized drugs such as fentanyl, which is a poison and people are dying from fentanyl.”
Fentanyl has claimed thousands of lives in the state, including a record-breaking 1,050 fatal overdoses in King County alone last year.
Ferguson responded to Reichert by bringing up his work as attorney general suing drug companies and other players in the national opioid crisis, which has brought in more than $1 billion to the state for drug treatment and other services to fight fentanyl.
The state Supreme Court’s decision came as the U.S. grappled with protests and widespread public pressure to rethink policing following the murder the previous year of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer.
After the ruling, Ferguson became the highest elected official in Washington to publicly call for elimination of any criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of drugs, typically for personal use and often by people struggling with addiction.