by Rich Smith • Apr 26, 2021 at 10:00 am
For a couple months all drugs were decriminalized in Washington. But after the Governor signs this bill? Not so much.
Rather than embrace a recent state Supreme Court decision and fully adopt a public health approach to drug addiction statewide, during the final days of the 2021 session lawmakers in Olympia decided to pass a bill that re-criminalizes simple drug possession as a misdemeanor for the next two years. People convicted of misdemeanors face up to 90 days in jail.
The proposal does, however, give offenders two chances to escape that fate, in that it directs cops to divert a person caught with drugs to a treatment program, unless that person has already been diverted to treatment twice before. After the third offense, the cop decides whether to book the person or send them back to treatment.
The Divide: Curbing emergency powers
q13fox.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from q13fox.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
It s Looking Like Washington Will Restart the Drug War After All
thestranger.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thestranger.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Court upholds firing of ex-Seattle cop who punched person in handcuffs
By News Staff
Video of Officer Adley Shepherd punching woman
SEATTLE - The state Court of Appeals has upheld the termination of a former Seattle Police Officer who was fired for punching a handcuffed person seven years ago.
The appeals court upheld a lower-court decision that overturned a ruling by a Disciplinary Review Board to reinstate Adley Shepherd with a 15-day unpaid suspension for punching the intoxicated suspect so hard he fractured the orbit of her eye, The Seattle Times reported.
Former Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole fired Shepherd but he appealed with the support of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild.