Roger Roffman

Roger A. Roffman, DSW, is a Professor Emeritus of Social Work at the University of Washington and the founding director (1985) of the School’s Innovative Programs Research Group. With funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment over a twenty-five year period, he and his colleagues conducted a series of outcome trials of behavioral interventions tailored for marijuana dependent adults. This team also designed and studied motivational enhancement therapy interventions for adult and adolescent marijuana smokers who have concerns about their use but are ambivalent about making a commitment to change.

Roger’s book, Marijuana Nation: One Man’s Chronicle of America Getting High: From Vietnam to Legalization is on Amazon.com.

Roger grew up in Massachusetts, completed undergraduate studies at Boston University and then went on to complete graduate work at the University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley. He joined the University of Washington faculty in 1972.

Roger first became a marijuana policy activist in the 1970s, initially focusing on decriminalizing marijuana possession by adults. Also in the 1970s, he helped write a bill that established a state-wide medical marijuana research program in Washington State. In 2012, he was a co-sponsor of Initiative 502, a voter-approved measure in Washington to regulate and tax marijuana.

With his wife, Cheryl Richey, Roger lives in Seattle. He retired from the University of Washington faculty in October of 2009.