Seattle lawmakers have decided to go with treatment over incarceration. There was failure to pass a bill proposed by City Attorney Ann Davison and sponsored by Councilmembers Sara Nelson and Alex Pedersen to make using drugs in public a simple misdemeanor when a temporary state law is set to expire next month. The Seattle City Council rejected the bill in a 5-4 vote last Tuesday.
The bill, if passed, would have given the city attorney the authority to prosecute drug possession and public drug use cases. The state law will make drug possession and public use a gross misdemeanor. It is punishable by up to 180 days in jail for a first or second offense and 364 days for any additional offenses. This is about replacing a stopgap measure the legislature passed in 2021 after the state Supreme Court struck down Washington’s felony drug possession statute in a case called State v. Blake.
Last week, the Seattle bill went straight to a full council vote after bypassing a security committee. There was public comments and debate on the issue. Comments ranged from anti drug war liberal to conservative.
If passed, the failed legislation would have been adopted into the city’s criminal code. Without adopting the bill, Seattle police will still be able to make arrests under the new state law. The prosecutions will be handled by the King County prosecutor. The council did unanimously approved an amendment to the bill. That particular amendment would have added nonbinding language directed at the city attorney to use pretrial diversion programs when possible rather than prosecuting every drug case.
“For my part, the principal goal of this legislation is to get people using drugs into treatment programs,” City Attorney Davison wrote. “I pledge to work with diversion and treatment providers, along with the Seattle Police Department and Mayor’s Office, to ensure a robust continuum of options meant to balance individual health needs with the health and safety of the Seattle public.”
Even though the Council didn’t adopt the new legislation, the state law still takes effect in July, but police will refer any charges under that statute to the King County Prosecuting Attorney rather than to the City Attorney. The stopgap law made drug possession a misdemeanor and required police to refer a person to treatment at least twice before arrest. The new gross misdemeanor allows for but doesn’t require law enforcement and prosecutors to divert people into drug treatment at every stage of a criminal case.
