WASHINGTON'S WAR ON POT

Marijuana Arrests Are On The Rise.

POLICE MAKE a marijuana arrest every 46 seconds in this country, 24/7,
every day including February 29, according to a recently released study by
the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws. And that doesn't
mean being given a ticket; according to NORML, arrest means being
handcuffed and locked up. Of those busts, more than 88 percent are for
simple possession of small quantities of grass, not for growing,
transporting, or holding larger amounts for sale.

Washington still has relatively liberal laws on the books concerning
marijuana possession compared to a number of other places where possessing
any amount of the herb can net a person several years hard time. This state
still makes a distinction between holding a small amount of marijuana, up
to 40 grams, for personal use (a misdemeanor) versus growing or holding
larger amounts, presumably for sale.

For simple possession, state law calls for a mandatory one day in jail and
a fine, typically $250. Defense attorneys who handle a lot of these cases
said the overnight incarceration can be waived by a judge in exchange for
community service, if the jails are overcrowded. Marijuana felonies (sale,
possession of larger quantities, and growing--except in the case of medical
marijuana) are treated the same as most other narcotics, with a five-year
prison sentence and a fine of up to $10,000 possible.

In terms of enforcement, Washington state came out in about the middle of
the pack in the study, compiled from published 1995-97 crime statistics by
public policy analyst Jon Gettman. Although this state has not been as
eager to nab its stoner citizens as some, Washington has been showing an
increasing interest in pot, with total arrests for marijuana climbing by
more than a third, from about 9,000 statewide in the middle of the last
decade to over 12,000 three years later. While statistics for this year are
not yet available, defense attorneys who represent drug defendants say the
numbers appear to be running apace and in some areas are increasing.

"An increasing number of our clients who run a red light and admit to
having smoked marijuana in the last several hours are finding themselves
charged with" driving under the influence (DUI) of drugs, says Brad
Maryhew, a local defense attorney. Maryhew sees many such cases as
supervisor of the misdemeanor unit at the Society of Counsel Representing
Accused Persons, one of the six legal organizations in King County that
provides attorneys for poor defendants. The reason for the increase in
marijuana DUIs, he claims, is a recent state Supreme Court ruling that
specially trained drug-recognition experts can provide "probable cause" to
demand a blood test for drug use.

Initiative 692, which legalized possession of small amounts of marijuana
for medical use, has not affected arrests, according to Maryhew. "On the
misdemeanor side, where you're talking about possession of a small amount
of marijuana, we have not seen a huge change since the medical marijuana
initiative was passed," notes Maryhew. "If a defendant can prove that they
suffer from one of the particular illnesses and a physician has recommended
the marijuana to alleviate one of those symptoms, then it's my sense that
the prosecutors are not pursuing those cases, but those are rare
circumstances."

Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the King County Prosecutor's Office, confirms
that prosecutors have been told not to charge people with possession in
clear-cut medical marijuana cases. Furthermore, he claims King County has
not prosecuted any cases against people growing marijuana for medical
purposes since the initiative took effect.

In spite of that, King County has the highest number and percentage rate of
marijuana arrests in the Puget Sound area. Between 4,300 and 4,500 arrests
have been made in King County in each of the last two years. The vast
majority of the arrests are for simple possession: 4,156 in '98 and 4,295
in '99. Numbers of busts run as much as 30 percent higher than the state
average, and range between 50 and 100 percent more than rates in either
Pierce, Snohomish, or Kitsap counties. Nearly 3 in 1,000 people were
arrested in King County for marijuana violations last year, with the
highest rate by far in Bellevue, where there were 887 arrests (all but 30
for simple possession)--a number approaching one percent of the city's
106,000 residents.

In fact, Bellevue has been responsible for about 20 percent of all the
reported marijuana arrests in the county, despite having only about seven
percent of the county's total population. Considering how much lower the
rates were in nearby communities such as Newcastle, Redmond, and Issaquah,
one might wonder if Bellevue is uniquely hostile territory for tokers.

Government agencies and antidrug groups consistently insist that no one
gets arrested for marijuana offenses any more. Unfortunately, the truth is
just the opposite. Gettman's study concluded: "More people in the United
States are arrested for marijuana offenses today than ever before.
Marijuana arrests have doubled in the United States over the last decade
despite considerable public opposition. It is time to focus more closely on
the costs and benefits of these historic arrest levels and whether or not
they meet the standards for criminal sanctions in a just and free society."

Local policymakers seem unmoved by NORML's arguments. Dick Van Wagenen of
Governor Gary Locke's staff says, "It's no secret" that possessing
marijuana is a crime. He continues, "People who are doing it presumably
know they are committing a crime, and they make a decision to do that on, I
suppose, some sort of cost/benefit calculation of their own. I don't think
Governor Locke supports legalizing marijuana. I've never had any indication
that he did."

This weekend, people attending Hempfest, promoted as "the nation's largest
and most political cannabis event," will be protesting the record number of
arrests in Washington. As Gettman noted in the NORML study, the more time
and money gets spent on enforcing the marijuana laws, "the more important
it has become for the government to justify these arrests and the
accompanying economic and social costs."