Lewis County’s proposed ordinance to re-criminalize drug possession is now available to the public. The county’s proposed fix to the state Supreme Court’s Blake decision — which effectively decriminalized possession — will be the subject of a public hearing on March 30.
In its current form, the ordinance makes possession a felony, and would expire on July 1 of this year unless county commissioners take action to extend or modify it. The idea, according to Commissioner Lindsey Pollock, is to “plug the immediate hole” left by the state Supreme Court and buy time to address the issue long-term.
The ordinance would cover the entire county, but provides incorporated cities with an opt-out clause.
Although the state Legislature is considering how to address the fallout of the Blake decision — including how to filter through charges dating back to the 1970s — Lewis County’s drafted ordinance specifically reads, “it appears unlikely that the state Legislature will be able to pass statutes remedying the constitutional problem in the 2021 legislative session.”
Lewis County’s own state senator, Minority Leader John Braun, of Centralia, said this week that he supports the county in its endeavor to re-criminalize possession, and that the local effort is “unsurprising” considering what he characterized as Democrats’ unwillingness to act.
“This is a true public health, public safety issue that we should be dealing with, and instead we’re looking at the floor, and that’s frankly disappointing,” Braun said.
But across the aisle, Democrats told reporters Monday that they have convened lawmakers and stakeholders to discuss how to move forward. Although legislative cutoffs have passed, lawmakers can still likely get a bill through to the governor by tying it to the budget.
And Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, a King County prosecutor who is leading the Senate’s response to the Blake decision, warned that Lewis County’s local ordinance could create a patchwork of laws across the state.
“I firmly believe that the state needs to handle statewide policy,” Dhingra said. “We cannot as a state have these pockets of different laws so that people don't know what the law is from one block to the next block.”
She added that the state’s response to the Blake decision needs to include a ramping up of access to treatment.
Locally, the ordinance is expected to prompt debate. The day the draft was publicly presented to county commissioners — weeks before scheduled public testimony for the ordinance — officials already started receiving feedback. During a general public comment period, a Centralian identified as Chelle voiced opposition to the ordinance over Zoom, citing the negative impacts criminal records have on job, housing and financial opportunities.
Aside from challenges coming from those opposed to a criminal justice approach to issues of addiction, the county is also fully expecting the ordinance to face legal challenges.
If passed, the ordinance is “undoubtedly going to be challenged,” said Lewis County Chief Civil Deputy Prosecutor Eric Eisenberg. It’s what the prosecutor’s office would hope for, Eisenberg added. The sooner the ordinance is challenged in court and upheld by a judge, the sooner officials can rest assured that they’re on solid legal footing, he said.
Eisenberg told commissioners that the county could even offer a lesser penalty to one of the first offenders prosecuted under the ordinance in exchange for their participation in a court battle.
County officials, including Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer, expect the ordinance to be upheld, and have pointed to a clause that would allow the measure to stand even if its felony punishment was “deemed to be in excess of that authorized by law.” In that case, the ordinance would likely stay in effect, instead conferring the “maximum permissible penalty.”
Find Lewis County’s full proposed ordinance online here: https://bit.ly/3rZ0Gaz.
