The downstream effect, though, was that Washington’s existing statute that made simple drug possession of any kind a felony was made null and void, striking down roughly 250,000 previous convictions. Without an updated replacement statute in place, law enforcement agencies across the state announced last year that they would also be ceasing any arrests for simple possession.
That said, there’s still a level of uncertainty as to how the state might proceed on the issue moving forward. Over the last year, lawmakers considered legislative avenues to once again make drug possession a crime. One such proposed bill would have bumped it down to a misdemeanor instead of a felony,
→ Continue reading at MyNorthwest