Drug-possession debate splits Democrats

Plus competing ADU bills, right to repair, and more free school lunch for some

More aggressive treatment mandates for low-level offenders who want to avoid jail time was the prescription the Senate wrote during a contentious late-night vote, but many dissenting Democratic lawmakers argued the proposed cure could have fatal consequences.

It’s highly unusual for a bill to pass the Senate without 25 votes from the majority party. Senate Bill 5536 from Sen. June Robinson, D-Everett, passed 28-21 late Friday with 14 votes from each party and 15 majority Democrats voting no.

The measure is the latest compromise in response to the 2021 Blake decision, in which the Supremes tossed out the state’s law against simple possession of most illegal drugs. The justices handed lawmakers a to-do list that included retrying all eligible defendants, referring them to rehab, and wiping qualifying drug cases from their rap sheets.  

The Blake decision itself turned on a question of epistemological certainty. Defendant Shannon Blake argued that she did not know there was a baggie of methamphetamine in the jeans she had received from a friend. (The photo is a stock image that does not include Blake. Photo by Shutterstock.)

Here’s why you should care about this: The Supremes’ decision surfaced a long-simmering debate on the left: Should drug use be illegal in the go-to-jail sense at all? Many progressives argue that the decades-long war on drugs has been a catastrophic failure costing billions of dollars in court and prison costs while grinding up the lives of defendants in the process. Conservatives point to an explosion of highly visible drug use in Seattle and elsewhere, with associated crime and other problems. A temporary fix enacted in 2021 is set to expire this year, and the split vote is an indicator of how divided lawmakers are on the issue.