Seattle elected officials are taking into consideration no matter if the town must take on the obligation of prosecuting public drug use and possession costs, amid a new state law and a mounting compound use disaster.
City Legal professional Ann Davison is inquiring the City Council to approve a monthly bill classifying community drug use and drug possession as gross misdemeanors, which would give the city attorney’s business office the authority to prosecute each expenses.
In a unique session on Tuesday, condition legislators handed a monthly bill that variations drug possession to a gross misdemeanor and criminalizes community use, just after the Legislature unsuccessful to agree on a replacement for the existing possession legislation, which is set to expire in July. Gov. Jay Inslee signed the new bill into regulation the same working day.
With the condition regulation in location, Seattle law enforcement can make arrests and individuals situations will go to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for opportunity prosecution. But by adopting the adjustments into Seattle’s town code, the metropolis lawyer would be able to prosecute in its place of leaving it up to the county.
Councilmembers Sara Nelson and Alex Pedersen have joined with Davison in pushing for localizing the new condition legislation.
“Under state law, towns are responsible for prosecuting gross misdemeanor criminal offense,” Davison explained. “Now that drug possession and community drug use have been made gross misdemeanors, the job of charging those people crimes falls to town prosecutors.
“The Seattle town attorney can only prosecute rules in the Seattle Municipal Code, which is why I joined Councilmembers Nelson and Pedersen to suggest conforming laws.”
Frequently, the city lawyer handles misdemeanor prosecutions and the county handles felonies, but in some cases, like present possession laws, the county can take on misdemeanors. By bringing people prosecutions underneath the city’s purview, Davison’s business office will most likely prosecute possession and general public use circumstances much more commonly than the county, which typically prioritizes its felony circumstances
Instead, King County has concentrated on drug distribution scenarios, about 70% of which have concerned fentanyl or meth — or both — over the last two decades, a county spokesperson reported Friday.
According to the spokesperson, King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion has been routinely speaking with Davison and welcomes the metropolis taking on prosecutions of gross misdemeanors.
In April, Manion reported identical ordinances were required to give municipalities “appropriate jurisdiction,” and that she supports metropolitan areas partaking in regulation and cure “as aspect of a regional, collaborative solution that addresses the fast community need to have without the need of reigniting the war on drugs.”
Davison at first launched legislation to handle community drug use in April, together with Nelson and Pedersen, when the Legislature experienced not however established a date for a particular session, and when there was nevertheless a chance the previous stopgap possession law would expire about the summer months.
Nelson stated she supported the ordinance simply because it would preserve enforcement constant across the point out and would address worries from constituents about use of prescription drugs on general public transit, in parks and in other general public spaces.
“For possession, it’s essential not to have a patchwork approach,” Nelson explained. “But when it will come to use, centered on what I hear from my constituents, it is very much an issue.”
In April, when unveiling a program to “reactivate” downtown, Mayor Bruce Harrell directed the Seattle Police Section to concentrate on drug sellers fairly than individual consumers. When asked about the proposed council bill, Harrell reiterated that distribution was the city’s top rated precedence.
“I go on to imagine we need to dedicate our limited law enforcement and prosecutorial resources to the best challenge in which they can be most effective: Addressing open air dealing and distribution of lethal and addictive prescription drugs on our streets,” Harrell explained in an e-mail Thursday. “To that close, I’ll continue to advocate alongside the strains of our Executive Order, with unique customers served into demonstrated devices of recovery and remedy as a to start with option.”
Davison said she thinks the town ought to prosecute the two individual users and sellers.
“It would make sense to aim substantial consideration on drug dealers,” Davison claimed. “At the same time, we cannot overlook rampant general public drug use on sidewalks, parks and buses, and that is what inhabitants and employers around Seattle are inquiring elected officials to handle.
“Seattle law enforcement are capable of accomplishing both of those.”
Throughout his 2021 mayoral marketing campaign, Harrell also claimed he supported the decriminalization of all drug possession, and he continue to states that’s the right direction for the future but thanked the condition for “addressing a drug crisis that is harming communities,” when the possession law handed this 7 days.
“Regarding decriminalization, I feel that is a deserving long-expression objective, but the devices have to be in position right before using these kinds of a shift in coverage,” Harrell reported. “Since 2021, the landscape has improved substantially with the explosion of low-cost, commonly readily available synthetic medication like fentanyl and methamphetamine — poisons that are driving the surge in overdose fatalities.”
The new point out regulation establishes a utmost penalty of up to 180 times of possible jail time or a $1,000 fine — or both — for the very first conviction, less than the 364 days in jail and $5,000 great generally achievable for gross misdemeanors. It also prohibits prosecution for the two drug possession and drug use at the identical time. The City Council would not be in a position to alter the penalties associated with the prices.
SPD has not indicated assistance for possibly Harrell or Davison’s plans, and a spokesperson for the section declined to remark, citing its policy in opposition to commenting on pending legislation.
The town is also starting to give procedure alternatives for folks who knowledge compound use disorders, with Harrell saying a pilot contingency management system to incentivize treatment method as a result of gift certificates. Final slide, Nelson also proposed a $2 million pilot system to protect the charge of treatment method for folks dealing with habit, but the proposal failed due to spending budget constraints.