Pete Holmes seemed like the chillest city attorney in the country when he donned sunglasses and a Hawaii-style shirt to stump for marijuana legalization at Hempfest a couple years back. Today, he showed a sterner side.
Releasing a 20-page open memo, he expressed a dim view of the unregulated medical marijuana market that he portrayed as threatening public safety, quality of life and the implementation of recreational pot legalaization Initiative 502, which he he co-sponsored. Indeed, he said “opportunistic illegal suppliers” are often “thinly veiled as medical marijuana providers” and have an “unfair economic advantage” against licensed pot entrepreneurs who are playing by the state’s new rules.
“Bringing to a close Seattle’s ‘Wild West’ history with marijuana policy remains the single most important challenge to Washington’s ultimate success in ending marijuana prohibition safely and rationally,” he wrote.
And so, he calls for prompt “civil and criminal enforcement” to tamp down this gray market. He doesn’t spell out all the details in his memo, but speaking with Seattle Weekly this morning,his deputy chief of staff John Schochet explains that Holmes would like to see “immediate action” taken against two types of medical pot entrepreneurs: those that fall afoul of city codes passed in the fall that forbid new establishments from starting up after Nov. 16 of last year without a state license, and businesses started at any time that are proving to be public nuisances.
Holmes has in mind several ways the city could crack down on these businesses, according to Schochet. The city could tell them that they are violating city codes and need to shut down. If that doesn’t work, police could get involved by raiding these businesses and seizing their marijuana.
“We’re not interested in putting anyone in jail,” Schochet stresses. Drug seizure is a civil process that doesn’t have to coincide with criminal charges. And even if Holmes wanted to press charges, he couldn’t. Illegal drug possession is a felony that would have to prosecuted by the county prosecutor. Schochet acknowledges, however, that if police get involved, it’s possible they could refer cases to the county.
In any case, Holmes has a more sweeping fix in mind. Like a lot of people, he wants the legislature to finally get its act together and come up with a plan for medical marijuana. It tried and failed last year to do so last year. This year, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, the Seattle Democrat, has made it known that she intends to introduce a new bill, one that would reconcile the medical pot market with I-502 regulations and make some changes to the law that would favor patients, such as allowing them tax exemptions and the ability to grow their own marijuana.
In his memo, Holmes calls Kohl-Welles proposals an “elegantly simple solution.”
He also makes clear that he frowns upon the city creating its own, separate licensing and regulatory system for medical marijuana businesses. Mayor Ed Murray proposed just such a system in November. As SW reported a couple of weeks ago, the mayor is changing the plan and is said to be backing away from a separate licensing scheme. We reached out to Murray spokesperson Jason Kelly for a comment on Holmes’ memo, and have yet to hear back.
Holmes Marijuana Memo
