POT MEASURE IS TOUGH SELL AT COP CONFERENCE

John McKay, the former federal prosecutor and
unlikely champion of marijuana legalization,
spent 90 minutes Wednesday trying to persuade
state sheriffs and police chiefs that current
marijuana laws were failed, antiquated policies
that were a limitless cash machine for murderous organized crime syndicates.

CHELAN =AD John McKay, the unlikely champion of
marijuana legalization, joked that he was about to be fed to lions.

Then he walked on stage and tried to convince
about 130 sheriffs and police chiefs that he was not crazy.

For 90 minutes Wednesday, the former federal
prosecutor from Seattle blasted drug laws as
failed, antiquated policies that were a limitless
cash machine for murderous organized-crime
syndicates feeding America's seemingly bottomless appetite for marijuana.

A few in the audience =AD a gathering of the
Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police
Chiefs (WASPC) at a Lake Chelan resort =AD nodded.
But mostly the picture was one of frowns beneath mustaches.

In the end, the cops voted as expected: They
unanimously recommended rejection of Initiative
502, a measure headed to the Legislature or to
voters next November that would legalize, tax and
regulate small marijuana sales similarly to alcohol.

But after listening to McKay and a
counter-argument by Kevin Sabet, a former White
House drug-policy adviser, several sheriffs and
police chiefs described being squeezed between
the rising social acceptance of marijuana, laws
banning its use, and increasingly limited law-enforcement resources.

McKay said passing I-502 could begin a
state-based movement to force Congress into
re-examining marijuana laws. "It will take states
to say: This is wrong, this is our statement," he said.

Sue Rahr, King County sheriff and president of
WASPC, said that type of advocacy can make cops
uneasy. "We enforce the law, and here we are
being asked to help change the law," said Rahr,
who declined to take a position in I-502. "That's a dilemma."

Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict said he'd
have preferred the group take no position after
hearing McKay. "What we have is so broken," he
said. "The long-term strategy of the DEA is,
'Spend more money, hire more agents.' I hope for better."

Former pot foe

McKay, 55, carried legitimate pot-busting bona fides to the debate.

In his five years as the top federal prosecutor
in Seattle, appointed by President George W.
Bush, McKay's office filed charges against
Canada's "Prince of Pot" and led a case involving
helicopter smuggling of B.C. Bud that ultimately
netted $2 million, a ton of marijuana and at least a dozen convictions.

After he was forced to resign with eight other
U.S. attorneys in a politically motivated purge
by the Bush administration, McKay endorsed
marijuana legalization in a Seattle Times opinion
piece. On Wednesday, he reiterated that he
doesn't smoke pot and "doesn't like people very much who smoke pot."

But marijuana prohibition is the reason that
British Columbia-based gangs smuggling high-grade
pot are the "dominant organized crime in the
Northwest," and it accounts for 40 to 60 percent
of funding for Mexican cartels, he said.

Prohibition also fails its objective, he said. "I
think it's pretty clear that our criminalization
of marijuana for the last 70 years as a vehicle
to reduce its use is a failure," said McKay,
citing DEA figures that 16 million Americans regularly use it.

He reminded the assembled cops that a second
former U.S. attorney, Kate Pflaumer, and the
former FBI chief in Seattle endorsed I-502,
helping make it the strongest legalization campaign to date.

"We are putting it on your shoulders, to put your
officers out there in harm's way, to enforce a
set of criminal laws that are enormously ineffective," he said.

Skeptical authorities

It was a tough sell.

Mercer Island Police Chief Ed Holmes questioned
why the state should legalize a drug that only is
used for impairment. "With marijuana, there's
only one reason you smoke it. It's not like it
tastes good. You don't smoke it with your
burger," he said as the audience laughed.

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said of
the 244 arrests for marijuana in his county so
far this year, only five people spent more than
48 hours in jail. Most pot arrests were part of more serious charges, he
said.

"For anyone to run around and tell citizens we're
keeping people in jail just for marijuana, the data does not track," he
said.

State data show at least 9,308 adults and 1,217
juveniles were charged statewide in 2010 for
marijuana possession of less than 40 grams (about 1.4 ounces).

Sabet, who worked for federal drug czar and
former Seattle police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, said
studies show use would undoubtedly rise with
legalization, and new marijuana taxes would not
cover the increased societal costs.

And legalizing marijuana as a means to hurt
Mexican drug cartels, as McKay argued,
underestimated the gangs' sprawling resources, Sabet said.

"Anyone presenting a magic all-in-one solution to
both reduce incarceration rates, solve the
violence in Mexico, cure cancer and solve our
budget woes, which is what many
marijuana-legalization proponents are saying, we
should be very suspect," said Sabet.

State's big stake

Campaign director Alison Holcomb, who joined
McKay in Chelan, said I-502 had about 230,000
signatures and almost certainly will qualify for the November 2012 ballot.

If I-502 were to pass, the state Liquor Control
Board, based on federal drug-use surveys,
estimates that about 445,000 people =AD 10 percent
of the adults over age 21 =AD would use marijuana.
The analysis estimates that 95 percent of users
would consume two grams =AD roughly two thumb-sized
buds =AD a week, and the remaining 5 percent of
more hard-core users would smoke 2 grams a day.

Based on those estimates, I-502 would make
marijuana a top-five agricultural product in
Washington, with gross receipts of nearly $582
million, according to research by the state
Legislature. With a 25 percent tax at each link
of the production, distribution and retail chain,
I-502 would generate $215 million a year, with
nearly two-thirds of it earmarked for research and addiction prevention.

But one cop at Wednesday's debate, who declined
to give his name, said his son's struggle with
marijuana was serious enough that he had his son
arrested. The young man has "straightened himself out," the cop said.

"I thank goodness it carries the stigma of having
to be arrested, to have that hanging over his head," he said.

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com