A bill introduced in the legislature this morning adds the word “knowingly” to the statute assigning penalties for drug possession. For instance, what currently says “any person found guilty of possession of forty grams or less of marihuana is guilty of a misdemeanor” would change under house bill 1695 to “any person found guilty of knowingly possessing forty grams or less of marihuana is guilty of a misdemeanor.”
I’ve got a call in to representative Ruth Kagi (D-32), prime sponsor of bill 1695, to ask her intent. I speculate that she wants to strengthen the defense for people who have drugs planted on them, or those who have residue on paraphernalia and risk getting charged with a drug possession. Alison Holcomb, Drug Policy Director of the ACLU of Washington, says it would be an improvement. “Currently, someone can be charged with possessing a drug even if they didn’t know they had the drug,” she says.
But doesn’t everyone tell cops, “That bag of cocaine/pot/heroin isn’t mine”? And if you’re so stoned that you forgot you had 40 grams of stinky pot in your pocket, does that count as a defense?
Of course, possessing pot shouldn’t be a crime. And in that vein, senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-36) introduced a bill this morning that would decriminalize marijuana. It’s a companion to an identical bill in the house, where representative Christopher Hurst refuses to give it a hearing. Let’s hope Kohl-Welles’s bill has a better shot.
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will happen by initiative – the public is ready – not the cowards in the legislature
Not to be dumb or anything, but is there a way to petition so the Kohl-Welles bill can be given a hearing? I must say that sometimes I am not sure how the system works. I could guess that you could muster a pyramid of signature gatherers on this topic by yourself, Dom (Not living in Seattle myself, I would help but…).
HEARING WILL DEPEND ON DEM LEADERS IN THE SENATE – IF THE BILL IS BLOCKED IN THE HOUSE, WHY BOTHER?
$$$$$$$$ THAT IS THAT FOCUS OF THIS SESSION, RATHER SERIOUS STUFF INVOLVING STARVATION AND RENT AND SOCIAL SERVICES AND AND AND …
It’s more for when your friend or relative borrows your car and leaves a pot cig in it that you didn’t know about.
Seriously, potheads can be such jerks sometimes.
it’ll help when a car full of people are pulled over and everyone gets a charge for the bag in the glove box and they are forever banned from federal student loans.
@3, The hundreds of thousands of people in this state who are in jail, can’t ever realistically go to school, or get good jobs because of frivolous drug charges are wondering why you don’t think they are important.
The tens (hundreds?) of millions of dollars spent every year in this state arresting, prosecuting, jailing, and administering frivolous drug cases are wondering why you don’t think they can’t be used on social services or economic stimulation.
It becomes a question for the jury or judge in a judge trial when “knowingly” is added to the law….
I sat on a Jury for a cocaine possession case where this was a consideration due to the facts of the case. Now having said that, I would have to be very open-minded to believe in most cases that the defendant didn’t know he had a illegal substance on his person. In our case the defense was that the defendant claimed he unknowingly had put on his brothers pants, which contained the drug, and therefore didn’t know the drug was there.
It’s time we put a end to possession of mary jane mainly because it would save money.
So if I grow pot, can I claim I didn’t “knowingly” possess a certain quantity because I had yet to weight it?
OK, first and foremost, yes, pot needs to be legalized, or at least decriminalized. Second, this is the dumbest damned law I’ve ever heard of. How the fuck is anyone ever supposed to prove intent? Can’t be done. Which means every stoner just has to say “it’s not my pot” (which they do already) and they walk.
Did people actually vote this numbnuts into office? Shame on them.
Keep wasting money on the drug war, or make money taxing something that is less harmful than beer or cigarettes. When the entire country is having budget problems its time we analyze where the money is going, and we find new ways to bring in revenue. Oh wait, I guess I’m just making too much sense here.
The problem now is that the law puts the burden of proving “unwitting possession” on the defendant by a preponderance of the evidence. The bill putting “knowingly” in the statute would put the burden of proving that on the state beyond a reasonable doubt.
The current law, on its face, is a strict liability offense. Mail a joint and the postal worker is guilty. The Supreme Court of Washington saw this unfairness and grafted the “unwitting possession” defense into it.
It was a product of the war on drugs. Drugs won.
Is “marihuana” from the bill text? If so, that’s awesome.
i am a defense attorney… most crimes require two things: mens rea (mental element) and actus reus (action). The idea is that criminal conduct should generally require more than negligence or ommission. There are exceptions (DUI for example). As they are currently written– all drug laws in Washington have no mens rea component.. It is fucking ridiculous– the burden is shifted on a citizen prove by a proponderance of the evidence that the possession was unwitting… last time i checked citizens charged with crimes have no obligation to prove their innocence.. but WA seems to think otherwise when it comes to drugs at this point….
Hey Dominic, Sorry to post this in the comments, but I couldn’t find your email address. I love your pot posts, maybe you could do one on alcohol. It looks like there’s some talk in Olympia about privatizing liquor stores to raise tax revenue for the state. I’d love to be able to walk into QFC and buy some booze. The state monopoly stores also limit the liquor options we’re able to find here. When private companies come in they diversify selection to increase their profits, something the state stores don’t care about. The main beef with privatization seems to be that some of our representatives don’t want to lay off the state workers who run them. I’m sorry state employees, but if private business can do it better and raise more money for the state in these troubled times, I hope you get a nice severance package. It seems like something stranger readers would be interested in. The PI’s got the scoop here: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/3974…