Pubdate: Sun, 08 May 2005
Source: King County Journal (Bellevue, WA)
Copyright: 2005, Horvitz Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2948
Source: King County Journal (WA)
Author: Noel S. Brady, Journal Reporter
Cited: King County Bar Association http://www.kcba.org/
Referenced: the KCBA report 
http://www.kcba.org/druglaw/pdf/Treatment_Policy_Report.pdf
Cited: The Sentencing Project http://www.sentencingproject.org/
Referenced: The Sentencing Project study 
http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/waronmarijuana.pdf
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

COUNTY LEADS SURGE IN MARIJUANA ARRESTS

Study Argues Drug War Focus Has Shifted Away From Heroin, Cocaine

A recent nationwide study has identified King County as having the sharpest 
increase since 1990 in marijuana-related arrests among the country's 10 
most populous counties.

When King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng sparked a political movement three 
years ago declaring the "war on drugs has failed," marijuana arrests in 
King County had risen 418 percent between 1999 and 2002, according to the 
study results released this week by The Sentencing Project.

Misdemeanor and felony possession arrests alone were up 465 percent, the 
study say, while pot-dealer arrests rose 99 percent.

The figures illustrate the futility of prosecuting nonviolent drug 
offenders, particularly those who use marijuana, said Roger Goodman, drug 
policy director for the King County Bar Association.

"It's shocking but true," said Goodman of the statistics produced by The 
Sentencing Project. "The focus ought to be on crimes against persons, 
crimes against property rather than psychoactive drugs."

In the King County Bar's own Drug Policy Project report released this year, 
the Bar proposed a plan "for replacing the current framework of criminal 
prohibition with one of legal regulation."

The Bar and a growing contingent of lawmakers, legal professionals and 
health-care workers want to reduce the roles prosecution and incarceration 
play in dealing with the drug problem by increasing money spent on 
addiction treatment.

Goodman said he also hopes drugs such as marijuana can be taken off the 
black market to remove the vast profit motive for people to grow and sell 
it. Regulating the drug would restrict its access to children and provide 
prompt health care and essential services to addicts, Goodman said.

"It's really about protecting kids and saving money," he said.

Bellevue police Capt. Jim Kowalczyk, who leads the multi-agency Eastside 
Narcotics Task Force, said his narcotics officers aren't interested in 
putting low-level, nonviolent pot smokers in jail.

Maybe so, but one of the Task Force's most effective strategies is 
arresting recreational users and making deals with them for their help in 
busting their suppliers.

"Our goal is to get to the source and stop it," Kowalczyk said. "We want to 
go all the way up to the biggest fish we can get. A common way to get to 
the producer is to go after low-level users."

Whether it's marijuana, methamphetamine or heroin, police are responsible 
for enforcing the law, he said. If there is an emphasis, it's on those who 
supply the most of any illegal substance.

"Are we winning the war on drugs? I don't think so," Kowalczyk said.

The study by The Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C.-based left-leaning 
think tank, says the drug war's focus has shifted over the past decade from 
hard drugs to marijuana, which now accounts for nearly half of all drug 
arrests nationwide.

The numbers in the study were taken from the FBI's uniform crime report, 
and according to the study's co-author Marc Mauer, those statistics take 
into account only cases in which marijuana sales or possession was the 
primary charge.

"It calls into question the strategy of the war on drugs at the present," 
Mauer said. "It doesn't appear that arresting this number of people for 
marijuana is effective."

The study indicates that the percentage of heroin and cocaine cases plunged 
from 55 percent of all drug arrests in 1992 to less than 30 percent 10 
years later. Meanwhile, pot arrests jumped from 28 percent to 45 percent.

Mauer said the trend immediately followed the national focus on crack 
cocaine in the late 1980s. When the crack problem leveled off, the federal 
government continued spending about $35 billion a year to fund the war on 
drugs.

Along with the rise in pot arrests was a rise in overall drug arrests, from 
fewer than 1.1 million in 1990 to more than 1.5 million a decade later. 
Still, about 80 percent of the jump came from marijuana arrests, the study 
found.

The study also showed that although African Americans make up 14 percent of 
marijuana users generally, they account for nearly a third of all marijuana 
arrests.

"We need to consider whether current law enforcement strategies are having 
the effect they should have," Mauer said.

 From a local perspective, Kowalczyk said, the King County statistics don't 
necessarily correspond with the direction the Eastside Narcotics Task Force 
has taken.

In 1999, he said, the Task Force raided 18 marijuana growing operations, 
which on average include about 100 plants. The next year, the Task Force 
busted 22 grow houses, and in 2001 it busted 10. In 2002, the team found 
only nine grow operations, and in 2003 it busted seven.

While police here are concerned with the increasing potency of home-grown 
pot and the importation of notorious "B.C. Bud," the Task Force in recent 
years has grown more focused on the damage caused by methamphetamines and 
the dangerous labs popping up to make crystal meth. "That's scarier to me 
than anything," Kowalczyk said

Despite the statistical appearance that King County has gotten tougher on 
pot heads, Goodman said, Washington state and King County specifically have 
led the country in a cultural change for dealing with the drug problem.

In 2002, the state Legislature reduced prison sentences for nonviolent drug 
offenders and earmarked the money saved by releasing them for addiction 
treatment and drug courts, which offer effective alternatives to jail.

So far, the results have been positive, Goodman said. So much so that last 
week state lawmakers passed a bill for an additional $33 million to be used 
for drug treatment and an additional $6.7 million earmarked especially to 
help kids with drug problems.

"The Legislature has enthusiastically responded," he said. "I think there 
has been a cultural change." 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake