Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jul 2013
Source: Stranger, The (Seattle, WA)
Copyright: 2013 The Stranger
Contact:  http://www.thestranger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2241
Author: Dominic Holden

MAKING POT A PRIORITY

City Prosecutor Wants to Start Issuing Tickets for Smoking Pot in
Public

When voters legalized pot possession last fall, they also made it a
civil infraction to use pot in plain view (just like drinking beer on
the sidewalk). But Seattle police decided to give verbal warnings
instead of issuing tickets-even though they could have fined violators.

As Fourth of July events approached this year, police warned they
might issue a ticket under state law-if violators ignored warnings-as
a "last resort for compliance," Sergeant Sean Whitcomb explains.
Still, they didn't, and they haven't issued a single pot ticket under
state law.

But now City Attorney Pete Holmes, a sponsor of the legalization
initiative, is drafting an ordinance that would create a citation for
pot smoking in public under city law. If the city council approves it
as part of a larger ordinance to make Seattle's code reflect statewide
pot rules, Sergeant Whitcomb says he can "almost guarantee" that cops
will start issuing tickets, and interim police chief Jim Pugel, who
says warnings will still be issued first, adds, "There could be some
tickets."

That's not inherently problematic on paper-people shouldn't be a
nuisance with their weed smoking, and tickets are a breeze compared to
tossing potheads in jail-but adding the city penalty raises questions
about who will be cited.

"I can understand why backers of Initiative 502 want to show they are
serious about treating marijuana like alcohol, including not
permitting obvious public use," explains Lisa Daugaard, a member of
the city's Community Police Commission and deputy director of the
Defender Association, a public defense firm. "However, a citation
strategy seems to contradict Seattle's choice to make enforcement of
pot prohibition the lowest enforcement priority with I-75," a city
measure passed by voters a decade ago. (Full disclosure: I ran the
I-75 campaign.) Daugaard adds, "Every look at race and marijuana
enforcement has shown that it is disproportionately black people who
become the focus of such enforcement, even though white people are
obviously the overwhelming majority of users."

Holmes's office is vague about the need to create a city ticket but
writes, "The world-not to mention the federal government-is also
watching to see if we're serious about both legalizing AND regulating
marijuana." They add that a municipal ticket would allow Seattle to
collect revenues instead of the county or the state (providing further
confirmation that Holmes expects tickets to be handed out).

Bruce Harrell, chair of the city council's public safety committee,
says he supports the council adopting language in the new law that
says marijuana remains the city's lowest enforcement priority and
tracking the racial impacts of enforcement. "The council can give the
officers some policy guidance on this," he says.

If the council does create a ticket, Pugel says that while he serves
his term as interim chief, tickets will "only be used as a last resort
after someone has refused to put it away. It takes time and money to
write a citation. Let's focus on the things that make the city safer.

"I hope you don't feel that the SPD is beating down the door to get
this done," Pugel adds.
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MAP posted-by: Matt