HEMPFEST PUTS MARIJUANA POLICY BACK ON FRONT BURNER

Seattle Hempfest, the annual two-day festival that's equal parts
party and protest against marijuana laws, is set to take over three
waterfront parks this weekend to highlight an issue some lawmakers
are planning again to pursue in 2010.

Bills were introduced in both chambers of the state Legislature in
2009 calling for possession charges for adults caught with less than
40 grams of marijuana -- nearly 1.5 ounces -- to be reclassified from
a misdemeanor to a civil infraction. Instead of serving one-day
mandatory minimum sentences in jail, offenders would be able to pay a
$100 fine and not have to appear in court.

Legal penalties for users younger than 18 would still be those for a
misdemeanor under the proposal.

The bill cleared the state Senate Judiciary Committee with bipartisan
support, but the proposal never got a hearing in the state House of
Representatives.

Marijuana advocacy groups and some state legislators say politics may
have kept the issue from moving forward last year.

"Many legislators have been concerned that their support would come
back to haunt them in their re-election campaigns," said Sen. Jeanne
Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, one of the bill's original sponsors.

Kohl-Welles and other legislators anticipate presenting the proposal
again in 2010, saying voters likely are already in favor of
marijuana-policy reform in Washington.

"The people are ahead of the politicians," said Rep. Brendan
Williams, D-Olympia, who co-sponsored the House's version of the
bill. "But, unfortunately, the politicians aren't even giving them
the chance to talk about this issue."

In Seattle, marijuana possession is a relatively low priority for the
Police Department, but it can affect criminal charges if someone is
arrested for another crime. In 2008, the City Attorney's Office filed
133 marijuana-possession charges against people who were initially
arrested for other offenses.

Being caught with 40 grams or less of marijuana can land users in
jail for a mandatory one-day minimum sentence and bring a fine of
between $250 to $500.

Vivian McPeak, Seattle Hempfest's organizer, said punishing people
with 40 grams or less doesn't affect dealers and has little effect on
the number of people who use the drug overall.

"If someone has 40 grams of pot in one bag, they're probably a casual
user," McPeak said.

The possibility of decriminalizing possession doesn't sit well with
addiction therapists and anti-drug organizations, who argue
decriminalization could cause people to overlook harmful aspects of
marijuana use, related risks of addiction and the possibility that
the use of harder drugs could increase.

"There are more kids admitted into publicly funded
chemical-dependence treatment programs in our state for marijuana
than for alcohol or any other drug," said Deb Schnellman,
communications director for the state Department of Social and Health
Services' Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse. A 2006 youth
survey showed 61 percent of Washington's high-school seniors think
obtaining marijuana is easy. She said the same is likely true for adults.

If the proposal became law, Schnellman said, the public perception of
marijuana's harmful factors likely would drop and could exacerbate an
already complicated problem.

"We don't have enough funding as it is to reach everyone with
prevention programs and prevention tools."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington worked with the
Legislature in drafting the proposal and estimates if possession
charges were reclassified to civil penalties, the state could save
$16 million per year in court and defense costs and raise $1 million
through $100 civil-infraction penalties.

In Oakland, Calif., voters approved a proposition to impose a 1.8
percent tax on medicinal marijuana sold from authorized dispensaries
to help offset an anticipated $83 million budget shortfall. The tax
will be implemented in 2010 and could earn up to $400,000 for the
city's municipal services.

McPeak said pot decriminalization in Washington could be a first step
toward creating a statewide revenue-generating marijuana policy
similar to Oakland's.

"They can make a lot more money by taxing it than by fining people,"
McPeak said.

Financial incentives aside, Schnellman said the possible effects of
marijuana decriminalization on public health outweigh the possible
benefits supporters use as bargaining chips. Schnellman said the
money the state could save because of marijuana decriminalization
might be diverted to funding more public addiction-treatment programs
if pot possession were no longer a criminal offense.

After years of marijuana and hemp advocacy, McPeak says he is still
looking for the casualties of the drug's negative effects. He said
decriminalizing marijuana use in Washington and using money generated
from fines to fund addiction and education programs would be a better
public service than the state's current marijuana policy.

"If the purpose of these laws is to stop people from smoking
marijuana in our communities, they could not be a bigger failure," he
said. "So we've got to do something else -- something more cost-effective."

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SEATTLE HEMPFEST 2009

Where: Myrtle Edwards Park, Elliott Bay Park and the Olympic Sculpture Park

When: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., today and Sunday

Admission: Free, $10 suggested donation