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Seattle City Attorney To Dismiss All Marijuana Possession Cases

Seattle's new city attorney, Pete Holmes, says his office will no longer prosecute marijuana possession cases, and is going to dismiss those that are pending.

City Attorney Pete Holmes, who beat incumbent Tom Carr in November, said he dismissed two marijuana-related cases in his first day on the job, and several others are about to be dismissed. In addition, his new criminal division chief, Craig Sims, said he is reviewing about 50 more cases. Unless there are "out of the ordinary circumstances," Sims said, the office doesn't intend to file charges for marijuana possession.

"We're not going to prosecute marijuana-possession cases anymore," Holmes said Thursday during a public interview as part of Town Hall's Nightcap series. "I meant it when I said it" during the campaign.

Seattle has an ordinance making pot possession the lowest priority for police. Last week, a ballot initiative was filed to legalize adult marijuana possession, manufacturing and sales in the state. The Legislature is already considering bills to decriminalize and regulate marijuana, or to make it legal in the state.

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  • Display: Sort:
    Wow (none / 0) (#1)
    by Militarytracy on Mon Jan 18, 2010 at 08:24:29 PM EST
    Impressive use of taxpayer funds IMO

    Now thats a prosecutor... (none / 0) (#2)
    by kdog on Tue Jan 19, 2010 at 07:45:49 AM EST
    with half a brain...allright!

    I may not be able to restrain myself (none / 0) (#8)
    by oculus on Tue Dec 07, 2010 at 01:10:37 AM EST
    from punching you out!

    Parent
    The fiscal realities are settling in (none / 0) (#3)
    by SeeEmDee on Tue Jan 19, 2010 at 08:15:00 AM EST
    The realities that we can no longer afford the DrugWar, and its' emphasis on cannabis prohibition. That's all that this is. That, and political opportunism.

    But if it hastens the end of the whole sordid mess of drug prohibition, then reformers will have to take what they can get.

    Good things (none / 0) (#4)
    by TeresaInSnow2 on Tue Jan 19, 2010 at 10:08:19 AM EST
    Good things, common sensical things, have been happening since McGinn won the Seattle Mayorship, while the prior Mayor McIdiot couldn't even survive the primary.  I'm so glad that things turned out they did over there.

    Shape of the future (none / 0) (#5)
    by mcl on Tue Jan 19, 2010 at 01:55:33 PM EST
    Once again the Pacific Northwest shows that it's now the place in America where all the energy and new ideas are coming from. Once upon a time, California was the original and xerox machine for culture in America, but that ended around the mid-90s during Pete Wilson's toxic run for the presidency.

    Now California finds itself trapped in a death spiral of more prisons and more cops. We have two futures on display: the Pacific Northwest, or Califronia. Let's hope America chooses the former rather than the latter...