Kitsap County: The Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office will no longer take into custody individuals for keeping drugs for self-use regardless of whether the drugs are meth, cocaine, or heroin.
The Washington Supreme court ruled that the possession of narcotics is no longer unconstitutional. This change comes after the supreme court verdict on Drug possession.
Sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. Ken Dickinson stated that “”We have been given instructions from the prosecutor’s office, based on their understanding of this ruling, to stop arrest to issues using citations for simple possession of the drug.””
The Chief of staff for the prosecutor’s office, Ione George, said that “We made it a priority to determine whether there were people in custody or had outstanding bench warrants the decision could affect.”
On initial review, the current ruling on narcotics possession impacts more or less 620 counts of drug possession underneath the prosecutor’s view, Ione George further stated. The Poulsbo Police Chief Ron Harding has numerous other worries, including the new verdict on narcotic possession, making it legal that the State could lead to the end of drug court altogether.
Shannon Blake was involved in the case, a Spokane resident who was taken into custody on an unrelated allegation. During the investigation, a corrections officer found out a little packet of methamphetamine in one of her pockets of the jeans she was wearing. The Washington state sends her into custody for illegally Keeping Narcotics.
In her defense, Blake made stories about how a friend of hers gave her the jeans to wear, and she simply doesn’t know about it having the drug in it. She kept her side boldly, but the judge found her guilty of the said crime. The statute simply stated,” “It is unlawful for any person to possess a controlled substance.”
The majority of the court ruled that the Narcotic possession law violated due process since it” “criminalized wholly innocent and passion conduct duct on a strict liability basis” and added,” “… In this case, the State did not prove that Blake did anything except wear the jeans that had pockets.”
Justice Sheryl McCloud wrote in the majority decision: “Attaching the harsh penalties of a felony conviction, lengthy imprisonment, stigma and the many collateral consequences that accompany every felony drug conviction to entirely innocent and passive conduct exceed the legislature’s powers”
The court Shannon Blake’s judgment. The supreme court designated that the State of Washington is the only state in the United States of America that did not require a person to knowingly possess narcotics to be found guilty of the crime.
The county’s chief public defender, Steven Lewis, said that “There was a defendant who was scheduled to change his plea to guilty and be sentenced to a drug possession that very morning. We obviously changed direction, and he ended up being released”” adding he was shocked by the court’s ruling” “in a good way,”