“You may be solving one question but you’re creating 10 more,” said Lewis, a former prosecutor for the city of Seattle.
The question is one of jurisdiction. In Seattle, most misdemeanors are handled by the City Attorney’s Office, while felonies are picked up by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Were the state to turn drug possession from a felony into a gross misdemeanor, Lewis is worried it could create some expectation that Seattle or other cities get in the business of drug enforcement — which Seattle is unlikely to do.
The February Blake decision from the Washington Supreme Court struck down the law criminalizing drug possession as unconstitutional because
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