cannabisnews.com: Winking at Pot Use is Risky Business





Winking at Pot Use is Risky Business
Posted by CN Staff on August 19, 2003 at 17:56:09 PT
By Susan Paynter, Columnist
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer 
The Seattle City Council member salutes Initiative 75. That's the Sept. 16 ballot measure that would officially direct law enforcement officers to wink and walk on by when they see a citizen igniting a joint.The Seattle police officer has another kind of gesture in mind for the notion of leaving a law against marijuana on the books and then ordering him to look the other way.
And, ta da!, the allegedly liberal mother and PC columnist sides with ... the cop.You've probably heard the arguments from council member Nick Licata and I-75's other council supporters, Heidi Wills and Judy Nicastro.You may have heard them from the ACLU, the King County Bar Association and much of Seattle's liberal establishment.Fer sure you caught more than a whiff of the rationale if you wafted anywhere near Myrtle Edwards Park last weekend during Hempfest.The gist is that ganja remains technically illegal but cops and prosecutors would be ordered to treat personal use by adults as the city's "lowest law enforcement priority." Lower than even a civil infraction such as jaywalking.The reasoning is to spare scarce tax money and municipal muscle to wrestle serious crimes like rape and robbery and to free up funds for parks, libraries and shelters.And, pragmatically, it's tough to question the view from Licata's perch, where he sees so many needs unmet and tasks undone due to a city budget thinner than Zig Zag.Besides, Licata told me yesterday, there are all kinds of rules out there that get broken every day -- jaywalking, exceeding arterial speed limits. "What we've done in a practical manner (with the initiative) is to make adult use of marijuana a lower priority than burglaries and drunken driving."But isn't it already a lower priority with police?Ah, but a new mayor could come along and crack down, Licata said. This way, it's officially on the books and priorities can't be changed.Oh, but they wouldn't change anyway, said Seattle police detective Bob Seavey. Police would always pursue the worst first. Besides, there are too many people out there screaming for attention to their rights to let that happen. Their right to jaywalk. Their right to smoke dope. Their right to sell porn or ban porn from Pike Street. "You're not going to get a mayor who'll pull a Rudy Guiliani in this town," he said.But there was a more important issue to be pressed on the cop and the politician at hand, both of them being fathers.Doesn't the already difficult talk we have with our kids about dope get even murkier if we have to say, "Well, Johnny, marijuana is illegal. And demonstrably bad for you. So don't do it ... until you're an adult. After that, it's still illegal, but you can go ahead and bum a match from a passing beat cop because he's been ordered to ignore the law"?From his own perch, including six years walking a beat on Pike Street, Seavey has seen "every act committed by every human being and some animals," he said. "Bottom line is you have rules to provide some order to life and when you say it's OK to disregard one you send a message that breaking the others is OK, too."Your kid doesn't like a rule at school? Tell him not to bother running for student council in order to change it. Just ignore it the way we do with dope.Every time he works crowd control by Safeco Field before or after a ballgame, Seavey confronts people who want to defy the jaywalking laws that stand between them and their seat or car. They surge into oncoming traffic and get mad as hell when told to wait for the light.Should we just let them get clobbered? Let them clog traffic?What about just smoking a little crack for "adult personal use?" Or speeding if you have a really important meeting to make?"Children will push rules to see if there's a consequence," Seaver said. "Unfortunately, we've got adults in Seattle who haven't stopped doing that either."Licata says kids are smart. They already realize some laws get enforced and some don't. And some are enforced unfairly. And he isn't wrong.OK, so change them. But don't leave them on the books with a wink and a door wide open to disrespect.Susan Paynter's column appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)Author: Susan Paynter, Seattle Post-Intelligencer ColumnistPublished: Wednesday, August 20, 2003Copyright: 2003 Seattle Post-IntelligencerContact: editpage seattle-pi.comWebsite: http://www.seattle-pi.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:ACLU http://www.aclu.org/Seattle Hempfesthttp://www.hempfest.org/Pro-Pot Initiative Gets Political Push at Hempfest http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17089.shtmlPolitical Aroma Detected at Hempfesthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17088.shtmlHempfest Pushes Fall Ballot Measurehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17086.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by Richard Paul Zuckerm on August 20, 2003 at 07:21:44 PT:
SUPPLEMENT TO THE OPINION OF COMMENT NUMBER 4
A couple of weeks ago, I received a response letter from the National Education Association stating they do not subscribe to drug legalization. My letter merely asked that they improve the curriculum of government schools so that the students are taught the dark side of government, including the history of Marihuana, as shown from the Web article entitled Shadow of the Swastika, www.sumeria.net/politics/shadv3.html, the book entitled The Emperor Wears No Clothes, by Jack Herer, posted on the Web at www.jackherer.com, and the awful HYPOCRISY that THE UNITED STATES CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY LAUNDERS OVER $200 MILLION OF DRUG MONEY THROUGH WALL STREET, EVERY YEAR, WITH IMPUNITY, www.fromthewilderness.com, www.expertwitnessradio.org, while otherwise law abiding American citizens are criminalized. The New Jersey Board of Education sent me letter response indicating my efforts to improve the curriculum should be directed towards LOCAL Boards of Education, on a district by district basis.I saw a videotape the other day which I purchased from www.johnsonsmith.com about Egyptian symbols in America, narrated by Jordan Maxwell. You people should see the movie! He says the American legal system and American money system are controlled by the Vatican. It reminds me of the book entitled Vatican Assassins, which I purchased from www.vaticanassassins.org. I spoke to a young lady the other day while in Barnes & Noble bookstore. She said she was Catholic and that she puts their past behind her. I asked if she knows what the Council of Trent is and if she puts their past behind her why the oath taken by every Pope includes the Council of Trent. She said she does not know and she does not want to know what the Council of Trent is. She is another obedient sheep supporting The Quisling Effect on the gradual deletion of our federal and state constitutional freedoms. People like her vote for the most popular politicians, rather than vote on her conscience!I would ask the reader to refer to the article posted on this web site around 4 days ago, entitled "Drugs? What Drugs?", of which I had posted comment number 8, for more on my search for the truth and freedom.Richard Paul Zuckerman, Box 159, Metuchen, New Jersey, 08840-0159, richardzuckerman2002 yahoo.com.Member of: www.njlp.org; www.greenparty.org; www.fija.org; www.jpfo.org; www.aclu.org; www.fromthewilderness.com; www.norml.org; www.normlnj.org.Diploma in Paralegal, New York University, 2003;
Diploma in Truck Driving, Smith & Solomon School of Truck Driving, Edison, New Jersey, 1995;
B.A. in Political Science, Kean College of New Jersey [subsequently renamed Kean University], 1987.
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Comment #4 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on August 20, 2003 at 02:41:50 PT
Change the laws
A wink and a nod, nice as it is compared to arrest and imprisonment, still leaves the criminals in exclusive control of the largest cash crop in the Western hemisphere.Change the laws. Sell it at 7-11. End the reign of the black market.
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Comment #3 posted by Petard on August 20, 2003 at 00:21:04 PT
Non-Enforced Laws
This whole article is bull. Remember the Texas Sodomy Law the Supremes just struck down? It was not enforced for decades until the one case that shot it down. How about the driving laws that make the legal oddities websites? Stuff like in New Orleans it is illegal to tie an alligator to a (horse) hitching post. Hell, some states even have the law against spitting on the sidewalks still on the books. How about those non-enforced adultery laws too? I laughed shortly before moving out of Tulsa, OK when I was sitting at a stoplight and the governors Public Service Announcement about a crackdown on drivers making left turns after the turn signal changed, strict enforcement. Laughed because while I waited for 4 cars to clear the intersection on my green light the cop sitting in the pole position just watched as those 4 ran the red turn signal in a single file line (it was time for a shift change and he was headed for the station, probably to go home, so he didn't want to take the time to enforce the law). The rarely enforced laws need to be handled through jury nullification when they are used. Most of those type are kept on the books so the cops can still hassle a person when they can't pin a real crime on someone they really want off the streets or to justify an otherwise illegal search. 
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Comment #2 posted by Prop203 on August 19, 2003 at 23:55:25 PT
Think about it!
"Licata says kids are smart. They already realize some laws get enforced and some don't. And some are enforced unfairly. And he isn't wrong. OK, so change them. But don't leave them on the books with a wink and a door wide open to disrespect."  We will change the law but we have to start with baby steps. See people are freaked out by reefer madness. We have to show them little by little its all a hoax..People dont feel confident about sudden change. And u well now if we put LEAGALIZE marijuana on the ballot that would be alot harder to pass. People need a lax law to test and gain confidence. after that We move to take the law off the books.. Think about it 
Prop 203
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Comment #1 posted by freedom fighter on August 19, 2003 at 22:18:26 PT
Winking at pot prohibition
is far more deadly... It's not a risky business..Sick...ff
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