Kent Police arrested a 27-year-old man for investigation of possession of marijuana after a call to police to report a man jogging and smoking marijuana near 64th Avenue South and West Meeker Street.

Officers tracked down the man along Washington Avenue and he admitted to them that he was smoking marijuana and had more marijuana in a plastic bag in a pocket, according to the police report about the March 20 incident.

When officers asked the man why he jogged and smoked at the same time, the man said, "It gets me going and it gives me energy and gets me all pumped up."

Officers reported that the man had about 2.6 grams of marijuana in his possession.

read article 1 here

DRUG CHARGES: At approximately 5 p.m. March 22, an officer was dispatched to a possible burglary in progress at a vacant residence on Third Avenue. A vehicle was located across the street occupied by one female. She told police the two males at the residence worked for a mortgage company and were going to provide a bid to clean up the property. She was asked to step out of the vehicle and as she did her purse was sitting in plain view with marijuana in a cellophane wrapper.  When questioned, she admitted the marijuana was hers and confessed to also having a metal pipe and glass methamphetamine pipe in her purse.  She was cited for possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.  It was determined the two men really were there to submit a bid for cleanup.

read article 2 here

My thoughts:

We've been told countless times in the last 3 years that "adult possession of marijuana is considered less of a crime than jaywalking".

Our government has stated MANY MANY times that there are more important things to do than worry about adult possession of marijuana.  BOTH of the above cases state that 1) they were adults and 2) they weren't operating a motor vehicle

Obviously both adults were a tad brazen in their marijuana possession but is still NOT supposed to be a prosecutable crime unless you are selling, smoking with a minor, in a school zone or operating a motor vehicle.

So is it a means to generate money due to the economy?  Here in Seattle, I would bet that 5 out of 10 stops will have possession of marijuana if the officer were to seek it out.  Does that mean that what we were told is not correct?  Was it an attempt to get us to be brazen about it.  One man was jogging and smoking down a very very busy road......  probably done that same thing every day for years but TODAY he gets ran down and prosecuted.

I'm so very confused.  I was under the impression that adults could smoke in comfort in their own homes....  now I'm not so sure.

Here are some articles:

ALREADY LOW PRIORITY

The new law, called Initiative 75, was aimed at making easier foradults to possess marijuana in small quantities without having to fearthat they will be sent to prison for years for smoking pot.

Critics have said that any law making marijuana use "low priority" ismeaningless because it already is a low priority for local police andprovides no direction on how to do that.

John Walters, director of the White House Office on National DrugControl Policy, came to Seattle earlier this month to talk down theproposed law, calling it a "silly and irresponsible game." The U.S.drug czar said any law making pot use a low law enforcement prioritywould raise its use among teenagers.

The U.S. West Coast, along with neighboring parts of Canada and Alaska, has long been a haven for marijuana advocates and users.
forum.grasscity.com/legalization-activism/26970-seattle-votes-make-marijuana-crime-low-priority.html

While Americans may tend to think of San Francisco as the likely center for any drug-related movement, and while it may seem surprising to think that Seattle could be at the vanguard of anything at this moment, given the prevailing feeling of stuckness on civic issues in this city, it turns out we're ahead of the rest of the country on this one. Largely below the radar, Seattle has moved to the new cutting edge of American social policy on adult drug use.

The most obvious example of this is Initiative 75, passed by a strong majority of Seattle voters in 2003. The measure mandated that arrests of adult marijuana users would become the lowest priority for law enforcement agencies in the city, all but decriminalizing potsmoking in Seattle. It was opposed by drug warriors from U.S. Drug Czar John Walters on down to Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr, but it nevertheless succeeded in radically altering the climate for potsmokers here, and has become the model for subsequent similar measures in Oakland, Denver, and Columbia, Missouri. Add in Seattle's innovative drug court, which allows people convicted of drug crimes to choose treatment over incarceration, and the King County Bar Association's new and groundbreaking blueprint for drug-law reform in Washington State, and this city emerges as something of a demonstration project on drug reform for the rest of the country.

www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=25507
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