DOWNPLAY POT, SEATTLE INITIATIVE TELLS POLICE

Marijuana may be illegal in the rest of the state, but Seattle voters will
have a say in whether police and prosecutors go after small-time users in
their city.

Initiative 75, on Tuesday's ballot, would direct law enforcement officers to
make marijuana busts in Seattle their lowest priority - something they say
they've already done.

The campaign, called the Sensible Seattle Coalition, has grabbed national
attention from both sides of the legalization debate. U.S. drug czar John
Walters was in town Thursday to lodge his objections to the measure, while
groups hoping to relax marijuana laws elsewhere watch to see how the measure
fares in a liberal corner of the country.

Seattle is the only city attempting such an ordinance this year.

The initiative, written by lawyers at the local chapter of the American
Civil Liberties Union, would set up a panel of 11 people to monitor the
measure's effects. Police and prosecutors would be required to report
marijuana arrests twice a year.

"Police and prosecutors exercise discretion every day. They decide all the
time to arrest or prosecute. This is nothing new. It just helps the city
decide where the priorities are based on citizen input," said Mark
Aoki-Fordham of the King County Bar Association's Drug Policy Project.

The measure has support from the bar association; Seattle City Council
members Heidi Wills, Nick Licata and Judy Nicastro; and King County
Councilman Larry Gossett. And money is flowing in to initiative backers from
across the country.

The national Marijuana Policy Project has contributed $17,500 to the
campaign. The project also directed a $40,000 donation to the I-75 folks
from Peter Lewis, an Ohio insurance company executive who has supported
decriminalization campaigns around the country. And the ACLU has donated
$30,000 to give the campaign a total of about $148,000, according to the
group's latest filling with the Seattle Elections Commission.

Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the national project, said groups that want to
relax marijuana laws will be watching the Seattle vote to determine whether
they should try similar measures in their cities.

A handful of local governments have similar laws, Mirken said, including
Mendocino County in Northern California, which requires law enforcement to
make prosecuting possession and growing marijuana its lowest priority.

But Capt. Kevin Broin with the Mendocino Sheriff's Department said law
enforcement in his county views the ordinance as more of a ceremonial
measure.

"As far as changing the law, it's had no impact," he said.

State and federal laws that make pot possession a crime still reign supreme
over any ordinance Seattle voters may pass.

There is no organized opposition campaign. But Seattle law enforcement have
collectively spoken against it.

Seattle police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said I-75 backers are peddling a myth
when they say the initiative will free police resources to focus on violent
crime. The bulk of their time already is spent on robberies, burglaries and
assaults, he said. The department's narcotics unit is focused on cocaine and
heroin traffickers, not on small-time marijuana users, he said.

"We're not out kicking in somebody's door for a small amount of marijuana
because we have all this extra time and personnel," Kerlikowske said.

Seattle police made 418 arrests for marijuana possession in 2001, down from
about 600 in 1998, Kerlikowske said. Possession of under 40 grams of
marijuana is considered a misdemeanor in Washington and is punishable by up
to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Anything over 40 grams is considered a
felony.

Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr said of the 15,000 cases his office
prosecuted last year, about 150 were for marijuana possession. And of those,
probably half had another offense tied to them, he said.

Carr said his office de-emphasizes certain crimes - marijuana possession
among them - but no physical list of priorities exists. He said he'd be
surprised if a person were arrested for smoking a joint on a street corner
in downtown Seattle, for example.

Eleven states have decriminalized marijuana possession, meaning a person
caught with a small amount of marijuana receives the equivalent of a traffic
ticket. Another eight states - including Washington - have medical marijuana
laws.

The head of the initiative, Dominic Holden, conceded there are few marijuana
arrests in Seattle. But he said police underestimate the time and cost
associated even with those.

Particularly troublesome, he said, are arrests of people using marijuana for
medicinal purposes, such as glaucoma and cancer.

"If you were one of the individuals arrested or a member of your family or a
friend were arrested, this poses a great imposition and is a very traumatic
experience," said Holden, who also organizes the annual Seattle Hempfest.
"Jail should be the last resort, not the first."