{"id":748123,"date":"2021-09-13T14:21:04","date_gmt":"2021-09-13T18:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=748123"},"modified":"2021-09-13T14:21:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-13T18:21:07","slug":"its-now-almost-impossible-to-get-arrested-for-drugs-in-washington-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/its-now-almost-impossible-to-get-arrested-for-drugs-in-washington-state\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Now Almost Impossible To Get Arrested For Drugs In Washington State"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fits-now-almost-impossible-to-get-arrested-for-drugs-in-washington-state%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=748123&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/GettyImages-1276646517.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Drugs are still illegal in Washington state, but you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>As of this year, it\u2019s almost impossible to get arrested for drug possession in Washington thanks to the state\u2019s new drug law, which one sheriff described as close to \u201cunenforceable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cops can no longer arrest someone for possession of drugs until the third time they catch them, something that has proven extremely difficult to track as drug overdoses tick up across the state.<\/p>\n<p>The changes began in February when the Washington Supreme Court ruled that the state\u2019s statute making drug possession a felony was unconstitutional, effectively decriminalizing drugs for several months.<\/p>\n<p>In May, the state replaced the old law with a new statute making drug possession a misdemeanor only. Under the new law, the first two times that police officers catch someone with drugs, they must issue the person a warning and provide them with contact information for rehabilitation resources. On the third occasion, the individual can be arrested and charged \u2014 but no charge is still viewed as the preferred outcome. An exception is made if the amount of illegal substances is very large, suggesting a connection to drug trafficking, in which case police can make an arrest without two prior warnings. The law also has a \u201csunset clause,\u201d meaning the state legislature has two years to come up with a more permanent solution.<\/p>\n<p>Washington state lawmakers who supported the state Supreme Court\u2019s decision to scrap the old drug law argued that the state needed a more compassionate approach to dealing with drug addicts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey, in essence, ended the war on drugs,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/crosscut.com\/news\/2021\/03\/courts-legalization-drug-possession-has-wa-lawmakers-scrambling\">said<\/a> state Sen. Manka Dhingra, a Democrat from the city of Redmond, just east of Seattle.<\/p>\n<p><span>The newly-loosened drug policy means that a 19-year-old in possession of a user amount of heroin could end up getting in less trouble than if the same person was caught in possession of alcohol or even tobacco. The maximum <a href=\"https:\/\/app.leg.wa.gov\/Rcw\/default.aspx?cite=66.44.270\">penalty<\/a> for underage possession of alcohol in Washington is a year in jail and a fine of $5,000.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>One of the biggest problems hamstringing police is that there is no statewide database to track how many warnings a drug suspect has already been given. A proposal to fix this involves the statewide system that is used for traffic tickets and vehicle collision reports. Within the last month, a new module for drug possession warnings was created in the Statewide Electronic Collision &amp; Ticket Online Records (SECTOR) program, which is operated by the Washington State Patrol. When detaining a person for drug possession, an officer can run their name through SECTOR to determine how many warnings, if any, that person has already been given.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s how it works in theory anyway. In practice, logging drug warnings in the SECTOR database would have to be mandatory in order for it to work effectively, several heads of police in Washington told The Daily Wire. As of September 2, only 40 statewide drug warnings had been logged in the system. The previous week, there were only a dozen drug referrals, and two of them were from one agency, the Whitman County Sheriff\u2019s Office in southeastern Washington.<\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThe problem is it\u2019s very haphazard and chaotic right now. It\u2019s not an easy thing to just put in and track,\u201d Whitman County Sheriff Brett Meyers said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cHow do we know it\u2019s the third time if yesterday they\u2019re arrested in Seattle, then they\u2019re arrested in Yakima the next day, then they\u2019re arrested in Walla Walla, and then in Whitman County?\u201d he added. <\/span><span>\u201cUnless there\u2019s some way to track this, there\u2019s no way to know. And there\u2019s no way to know if they got counseling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s right on the edge of almost really an unenforceable law,\u201d the sheriff said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Local police departments and sheriff\u2019s offices have attempted to address the lack of a coherent system by cobbling together their own local databases to track drug warnings.<\/p>\n<p><span>In Grant County, police have been able to coordinate on drug warnings because several agencies in the county use the same computer-aided dispatch system, Moses Lake Police Chief Kevin Fuhr said. Outside the county though, they still have no idea who has and hasn\u2019t been warned. <\/span><span>The new drug law is essentially pointless for Grant County anyway because police in the county do not arrest people for misdemeanors, Fuhr said. <\/span>Now that drug possession has been knocked down from a felony to a misdemeanor, the law simply creates paperwork for officers.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, drug use \u2014 and fatal drug overdoses \u2014 have skyrocketed in Washington and across the country since the pandemic began, while drug arrests have plummeted.<\/p>\n<p>More than 93,000 people died from a drug overdose last year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s National Center for Health Statistics. The pandemic exacerbated the nation\u2019s drug problem, according to health officials, and 2020 ended as the deadliest year on record for drug overdoses.<\/p>\n<p>In Washington, the availability of illegal substances increased, police said, once drug users figured out how lax the new law is. Public drug use is now rampant. Downtown Seattle remains a hotbed of open-air drug use and lawlessness, with residents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/seattle-news\/two-truths-to-downtown-seattle-living-vibrant-diverse-atmosphere-butts-up-against-drug-use-street-crime\/\">describing<\/a> how disturbing scenes of addicts shooting up in public have become a part of everyday life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are in another drug epidemic,\u201d Federal Way Police Chief Andy Hwang <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federalwaymirror.com\/news\/passions-run-high-at-federal-way-town-hall-meeting-over-crime-homelessness\/\">said<\/a> at a town hall meeting last month.<\/p>\n<p><span>Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich blasted the tragic effects of the new drug law as&nbsp;\u201cassisted homicide.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThese type of laws, all they\u2019re doing is killing people cause we\u2019re seeing more and more ODs,\u201d Knezovich told The Daily Wire. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing compassionate about allowing people to shoot poison into their body.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Police are now aware of children as young as sixth-graders using marijuana at school, Knezovich said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Proliferating drug use has exacerbated another problem in Washington: property crime, including vehicle prowls, home b<span>reak-ins, and theft from businesses as drug users look to generate a little revenue to fund their addictions. In 2020, property crime, which makes up 73.7% of all reported crime in the state, increased by 13.8%, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/waspc.memberclicks.net\/assets\/CJIS\/Crime%20In%20Washington%202020-small.pdf\">data<\/a> from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs&nbsp;(WASPC).<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The new drug law also came on the heels of a slew of new police <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/washington-cops-forced-to-allow-violent-criminals-to-flee-crime-scenes-after-new-police-reforms\">reforms<\/a> in Washington state that force officers to allow suspects in many violent crimes to flee the scene. Meanwhile, violent crime is on the rise in Washington. Assaults on officers have increased nearly 7% since 2019, and murders have risen nearly 67% since 2016, the <span>WASPC said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Despite the intent of the new law as a more compassionate way to deal with drug users, in the vast majority of cases, addicts are not following through and contacting rehabilitation resources when police issue them a warning. Previously in Spokane County, the county\u2019s drug court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spokanecounty.org\/1546\/Therapeutic-Drug-Court\">allowed<\/a> drug users to avoid a felony on their record if they agreed to participate in the court\u2019s rehab program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<span>Our officers will tell you they\u2019ve had people come up to them and thank them for arresting them for drugs because they were able to get dried out in jail,\u201d Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl said. \u201cO<\/span><span>nce they were able to get over the physical addiction, that\u2019s when they were in a position to start dealing with the mental and emotional and psychological addiction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\"><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Drugs are still illegal in Washington state, but you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise in 2021.As of this year, it\u2019s almost impossible to get arrested for drug possession in &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-748123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}