PBS travel host Rick Steves encourages Arkansans to pass marijuana amendment

Ten years ago, recreational marijuana opponents in Washington pushed a narrative of dystopian consequences that never materialized, similar to the ads marijuana opponents are running in Arkansas with references to increased car accidents and drug-addicted newborns.

The dystopia never came in Washington or in Colorado, which legalized cannabis for adults the same year, Steves said. 

“For 10 years, in our state and in Colorado, we have legalized marijuana and the sky didn’t fall,” Steves said. “What we’ve done is taken the sale off of the streets and now it is in highly regulated, highly taxed stores. 

Steves said the small town he calls home in Washington has a dispensary, which he described as a cross between an Apple store and a pharmacy. His town more closely resembles Mayberry from the Andy Griffith Show than the nightmare marijuana opponents predicted, he said. 

The opposition’s arguments have a common misconception, Steves said, that marijuana use will increase if it is legalized. 

“That’s a fundamental problem in their logic,” he said. 

In actuality, everyone that wants to use marijuana is already using it even though they are having to do it illegally. 

“I firmly believe that everybody who wants to smoke marijuana already does,” he said. “A lot of people believe there’s a whole reservoir of decent people that would love to smoke pot if only it was legalized. But the fact is people smoke pot if they want to and privileged people, wealthy, well-off white people like me can smoke with impunity.” 

Legalizing cannabis will allow people to continue using marijuana but in a safer, regulated environment. A regulated marijuana market will diminish the black market and will make it harder for children to get their hands on marijuana, Steves said.  

CIVIL LIBERTIES: Rick Steves is the chairman of the board of NORML and said he is driven by the defense of civil liberties as it relates to cannabis policy. (Photo courtesy of Rick Steves)

Since Washington and Colorado legalized marijuana for adults ten years ago, a total of 19 states have legalized recreational marijuana and it’s on the ballot in five more states this year. In addition to Arkansas, voters in North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri and Maryland will consider legalization this year. 

Steves said he understands that some people might be scared about legalization. Steves admitted that marijuana is a drug that can be abused and even admitted that the crowd at Seattle’s popular cannabis festival is “not my people.”

Steves said he only uses cannabis on occasion and is primarily interested in defending civil liberties as it relates to cannabis. Steves said he is concerned that poor people and people of color are disproportionately arrested for cannabis offenses. 

Steves said he is also interested in drug policy, saying that the United States treats drug addiction like a criminal matter rather than as a health issue. 

Steves, who runs a European travel business from Washington, said cannabis laws differ across Europe. The Netherlands, as expected, has the most liberal policy toward marijuana with cafes allowing the smoking of marijuana. Spain does not allow the sale of marijuana but allows cultivation, so people form collectives where they grow cannabis in groups and then use it together in lounges. Portugal, Steves said, legalized all drugs in 2000 and has had success treating drug use as a public health issue rather than a criminal issue. 

As for traveling, Steves said his family often traveled to Germany in his youth for his father’s work as a piano tuner and importer. Steves concluded at the time that Europe was a nice place to visit, he said, and today he hosts a travel show and runs a travel business. 

Steves first smoked marijuana in south Asia, he said, and also recalled smoking in India and Nepal where he said it is a part of the culture. Steves said he recommends travelers become culture chameleons. For example, he only drinks whiskey in Scotland and only eats fancy chocolate in Belgium, he said. 

As for the Arkansas marijuana amendment, NORML has endorsed the measure and is working to get it passed. Steves said the law is a move in the right direction and said it’s OK that the measure doesn’t include everything that everyone might want in it. 

“Well, that’s because you’re just inching into this frontier here, but you’re making progress,” Steves said. “That’s what’s exciting.”