Seattle Hempfest Information

Hempfest puts marijuana policy back on front burner

Seattle Hempfest, the annual two-day festival that's equal parts party
and protest against marijuana laws, is set to take over three waterfront
parks this weekend to highlight an issue that some lawmakers are
planning again to push for in 2010.

SeattleHempfest 2009

Where: Myrtle Edwards Park, Elliott Bay Park and the Olympic Sculpture
Park

When: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., today and Sunday

Admission: Free, $10 suggested donation

Hempfest puts marijuana policy back on front burner

By Phillip Lucas
Seattle Times staff reporter

Saturday, August 15, 2009 - Page updated at 12:01 AM

Seattle Hempfest, the annual two-day festival that's equal parts party
and protest against marijuana laws, is set to take over three waterfront
parks this weekend to highlight an issue some lawmakers are planning
again to pursue in 2010.

Bills were introduced in both chambers of the state Legislature in 2009
calling for possession charges for adults caught with less than 40 grams
of marijuana — nearly 1.5 ounces — to be reclassified from a
misdemeanor to a civil infraction. Instead of serving one-day mandatory
minimum sentences in jail, offenders would be able to pay a $100 fine
and not have to appear in court.

Legal penalties for users younger than 18 would still be those for a
misdemeanor under the proposal.

The bill cleared the state Senate Judiciary Committee with bipartisan
support, but the proposal never got a hearing in the state House of
Representatives.

Marijuana advocacy groups and some state legislators say politics may
have kept the issue from moving forward last year.

"Many legislators have been concerned that their support would come back
to haunt them in their re-election campaigns," said Sen. Jeanne
Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, one of the bill's original sponsors.

Kohl-Welles and other legislators anticipate presenting the proposal
again in 2010, saying voters likely are already in favor of
marijuana-policy reform in Washington.

"The people are ahead of the politicians, " said Rep. Brendan Williams,
D-Olympia, who co-sponsored the House's version of the bill. "But,
unfortunately, the politicians aren't even giving them the chance to
talk about this issue."

In Seattle, marijuana possession is a relatively low priority for the
Police Department, but it can affect criminal charges if someone is
arrested for another crime. In 2008, the City Attorney's Office filed
133 marijuana-possessio n charges against people who were initially
arrested for other offenses.

Being caught with 40 grams or less of marijuana can land users in jail
for a mandatory one-day minimum sentence and bring a fine of between
$250 to $500.

Vivian McPeak, Seattle Hempfest's organizer, said punishing people with
40 grams or less doesn't affect dealers and has little effect on the
number of people who use the drug overall.

"If someone has 40 grams of pot in one bag, they're probably a casual
user," McPeak said.

The possibility of decriminalizing possession doesn't sit well with
addiction therapists and anti-drug organizations, who argue
decriminalization could cause people to overlook harmful aspects of
marijuana use, related risks of addiction and the possibility that the
use of harder drugs could increase.

"There are more kids admitted into publicly funded chemical-dependence
treatment programs in our state for marijuana than for alcohol or any
other drug," said Deb Schnellman, communications director for the state
Department of Social and Health Services' Division of Alcohol and
Substance Abuse. A 2006 youth survey showed 61 percent of Washington's
high-school seniors think obtaining marijuana is easy. She said the same
is likely true for adults.

If the proposal became law, Schnellman said, the public perception of
marijuana's harmful factors likely would drop and could exacerbate an
already complicated problem.

"We don't have enough funding as it is to reach everyone with prevention
programs and prevention tools."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington worked with the
Legislature in drafting the proposal and estimates if possession charges
were reclassified to civil penalties, the state could save $16 million
per year in court and defense costs and raise $1 million through $100
civil-infraction penalties.

In Oakland, Calif., voters approved a proposition to impose a 1.8
percent tax on medicinal marijuana sold from authorized dispensaries to
help offset an anticipated $83 million budget shortfall. The tax will be
implemented in 2010 and could earn up to $400,000 for the city's
municipal services.

McPeak said pot decriminalization in Washington could be a first step
toward creating a statewide revenue-generating marijuana policy similar
to Oakland's.

"They can make a lot more money by taxing it than by fining people,"
McPeak said.

Financial incentives aside, Schnellman said the possible effects of
marijuana decriminalization on public health outweigh the possible
benefits supporters use as bargaining chips. Schnellman said the money
the state could save because of marijuana decriminalization might be
diverted to funding more public addiction-treatment programs if pot
possession were no longer a criminal offense.

After years of marijuana and hemp advocacy, McPeak says he is still
looking for the casualties of the drug's negative effects. He said
decriminalizing marijuana use in Washington and using money generated
from fines to fund addiction and education programs would be a better
public service than the state's current marijuana policy.

"If the purpose of these laws is to stop people from smoking marijuana
in our communities, they could not be a bigger failure," he said. "So
we've got to do something else — something more cost-effective. "

Phillip Lucas: 206-515-5632 or plucas@seattletimes .com

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