A 22-year-old man with severe food allergies died in the Snohomish County jail after a pot bust, and now his mother says she wants to know why.
Michael Saffioti died a day after turning himself in to face a misdemeanor marijuana charge...
All other issues aside—whether Saffioti should have been mixed into the general population, and whether jail officials took his food allergies seriously enough—the guy was in jail on a misdemeanor pot charge, and that's just plain stupid! These are resources that could be used to fight real crime (or, you know, to educate children) instead of being used to ruin (or end) the lives of people like Saffioti.
Yes, Initiative 502 isn't perfect, and yes, it essentially amounts to a state effort to nullify federal law. Yet even if the impact of passing it ends up being more symbolic than practical, that symbolism is important. Our nation's drug policy is more than just a failure; it is head-up-its-ass idiotic.
The fight to end the "War on Drugs" has to start somewhere. And it might as well start at the ballot box here in Washington State.
