WA lawmakers try to thread needle on drug possession, to mixed reviews
After the landmark Blake decision decriminalized drug possession, the state Legislature imposed new penalties with an expiration date of two years.
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The Washington State Capitol Building, also known as the Legislative Building, photographed Oct. 21, 2020, in Olympia. (Jovelle Tamayo for Crosscut)
Almost no one is fully satisfied with where the Legislature ended up this year in the debate over whether and how to decriminalize drug possession. The good news is that it’s a conversation that’s unlikely to end anytime soon.
In the middle of this year’s legislative session, the Washington Supreme Court dropped its Blake decision, declaring the law criminalizing drug possession in the state to be unconstitutional. What followed was a sprint by lawmakers to answer the justices’ enormous ruling — a balancing act between conservatives eager to make drug possession a felony again and progressives who wanted to make decriminalization permanent.