Seattle Mayor to Hold Meeting With Police to Clarify Lowest Priority Marijuana Enforcement
By Cannabis Karri
Seattle Police on horses seem much more friendly than the assault rifle-wielding, break-down-your-door type.
Seattle, WA - This morning, Seattle’s Mayor Mike McGinn will sit down with top law-enforcement officials from King County to discuss they way that Seattle police are enforcing marijuana laws. Mayor McGinn has come out in support of legalizing cannabis and has said the recent police raid of a military vet who had only a small amount of marijuana shows just how inconsistent the laws are in the matter. On October 25th, a SWAT team burst through the apartment door of 50 year old Will Laudanski who is a legal medical marijuana patient. After breaking Mr. Laudanski’s door down, shoving him to the floor and ransacking his apartment they could only come up with two very small marijuana plants in his bedroom.
The officers, who had a search warrant, realized the tenant had a legitimate medical marijuana card and left without making an arrest. They later came back and fixed the man’s broken door. The Seattle police department later said that they were following city policy. Seattle Police Department spokesman Sean Whitcomb said that the officers in the case had no reason to consider Initiative 75, the 2003 measure that Seattle voters approved to make arresting and jailing adults for possession of personal amounts of marijuana the department’s lowest law-enforcement priority. He said that the Laudanski case wasn’t deemed a possession case.
Mayor McGinn would like more of a clarification on cases like these. While it is technically true that Mr. Laudanski was suspected of more than a small amount of marijuana possession, McGinn says that I-75 should work on a practical level and reflect more of the public’s changing attitude toward marijuana, He says the public intent of the initiative needs to influence how officials think about policies regarding marijuana enforcement.
The meeting today is to discuss better policies to help guide police. Joining the meeting today will be City Attorney Pete Holmes, who promised to stop prosecuting people for simple marijuana possession when he ran for office a year ago. Also attending will be police Chief John Diaz, Sheriff Sue Rahr, King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, and City Council member Nick Licata. McGinn has also asked Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel to review all marijuana investigations when officers are seeking a search warrant to give them greater scrutiny and determine whether there are other methods that police could use.
The matter is complicated because although they didn’t find illegal marijuana in the case of Will Laudanski, in the same week, officers found more than 600 mature plants and 70 pounds of packaged illegal marijuana in a home in Renton. Because of federal patient-privacy laws there isn’t a state database of medical marijuana users available to the police, something that advocates have long fought against out of fear of creating lists for federal prosecution. When investigating a suspected growing operation that could turn out to be large scale and for-profit, police are always well-armed due to officer safety issues. With no way to check to see if Will Laudanski was a medical marijuana patient, and no access to his power bill since power was included in his rent and could not be accessed by the unit, officers could only go on a complaint and the presence of the odor of marijuana coming from his apartment. Ian Goodhew, the deputy chief of staff to King County Prosector Dan Satterberg, said that police have the duty to investigate criminal activity. Sometimes they find criminal activity and sometimes they dont, but they need to do their jobs more effectively.
By Cannabis Karri
Seattle Police on horses seem much more friendly than the assault rifle-wielding, break-down-your-door type.
Seattle, WA - This morning, Seattle’s Mayor Mike McGinn will sit down with top law-enforcement officials from King County to discuss they way that Seattle police are enforcing marijuana laws. Mayor McGinn has come out in support of legalizing cannabis and has said the recent police raid of a military vet who had only a small amount of marijuana shows just how inconsistent the laws are in the matter. On October 25th, a SWAT team burst through the apartment door of 50 year old Will Laudanski who is a legal medical marijuana patient. After breaking Mr. Laudanski’s door down, shoving him to the floor and ransacking his apartment they could only come up with two very small marijuana plants in his bedroom.
The officers, who had a search warrant, realized the tenant had a legitimate medical marijuana card and left without making an arrest. They later came back and fixed the man’s broken door. The Seattle police department later said that they were following city policy. Seattle Police Department spokesman Sean Whitcomb said that the officers in the case had no reason to consider Initiative 75, the 2003 measure that Seattle voters approved to make arresting and jailing adults for possession of personal amounts of marijuana the department’s lowest law-enforcement priority. He said that the Laudanski case wasn’t deemed a possession case.
Mayor McGinn would like more of a clarification on cases like these. While it is technically true that Mr. Laudanski was suspected of more than a small amount of marijuana possession, McGinn says that I-75 should work on a practical level and reflect more of the public’s changing attitude toward marijuana, He says the public intent of the initiative needs to influence how officials think about policies regarding marijuana enforcement.
The meeting today is to discuss better policies to help guide police. Joining the meeting today will be City Attorney Pete Holmes, who promised to stop prosecuting people for simple marijuana possession when he ran for office a year ago. Also attending will be police Chief John Diaz, Sheriff Sue Rahr, King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, and City Council member Nick Licata. McGinn has also asked Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel to review all marijuana investigations when officers are seeking a search warrant to give them greater scrutiny and determine whether there are other methods that police could use.
The matter is complicated because although they didn’t find illegal marijuana in the case of Will Laudanski, in the same week, officers found more than 600 mature plants and 70 pounds of packaged illegal marijuana in a home in Renton. Because of federal patient-privacy laws there isn’t a state database of medical marijuana users available to the police, something that advocates have long fought against out of fear of creating lists for federal prosecution. When investigating a suspected growing operation that could turn out to be large scale and for-profit, police are always well-armed due to officer safety issues. With no way to check to see if Will Laudanski was a medical marijuana patient, and no access to his power bill since power was included in his rent and could not be accessed by the unit, officers could only go on a complaint and the presence of the odor of marijuana coming from his apartment. Ian Goodhew, the deputy chief of staff to King County Prosector Dan Satterberg, said that police have the duty to investigate criminal activity. Sometimes they find criminal activity and sometimes they dont, but they need to do their jobs more effectively.
