{"id":958,"date":"2012-11-15T08:41:15","date_gmt":"2012-11-15T08:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/?p=20413"},"modified":"2012-11-15T08:41:15","modified_gmt":"2012-11-15T08:41:15","slug":"washington-state-dismissing-small-possession-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/washington-state-dismissing-small-possession-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington State Dismissing Small Possession Cases"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/washington-state-dismissing-small-possession-cases\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"260\" height=\"194\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/courtroom2.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"courtroom\" title=\"courtroom\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-20414\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/news-and-articles\/washington-state-dismissing-smallpro-possession-cases\/attachment\/courtroom-3\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-20414\" title=\"courtroom\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/courtroom2-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Last week Americans in several states signaled their desire to abandon the government&#8217;s failed approach toward marijuana regulation.\u00a0 However, instituting the programs in Washington and Colorado that will tax, regulate, and distribute marijuana will take some time as many details will still have to be worked out.<\/p>\n<p>There have been reports in Michigan of authorities <a href=\"http:\/\/www.michiganradio.org\/post\/maintaining-status-quo-flint\" target=\"_blank\">already making contingency plans<\/a> to fight against the will of the people.\u00a0 As we already stated, it may be unwise to contest election results and ignore the wishes of voters.\u00a0 Fortunately, in Seattle, officials seem more likely to act as government and elected officials are expected to.\u00a0 Although the legalization laws will not take effect until December 6th in Washington, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg recently said \u201cI think when the people voted to change the policy, they weren\u2019t focused on when the effective date of the new policy would be. They spoke loudly and clearly that we should not treat small amounts of marijuana as an offense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We applaud Mr. Satterberg for using common sense.\u00a0 Many officials will likely cling to their &#8220;good ol&#8217; days&#8221; mindset until the very last possible moment.\u00a0 This flawed thinking will only result in unnecessary arrests, wasted taxpayer dollars, and the eventual dropping of the charges.\u00a0 While Satterberg may be the first, the Seattle Times is reporting that other prosecutors are now considering following suit.<\/p>\n<p>The relationship between lawmakers\/police and residents seems to be an issue all over the country.\u00a0 This may be for good reason as the blatant disregard for what the people want was a bubble bound to burst.\u00a0 We are happy at marijuana.net, but we also need to remain stern.\u00a0 It should not be such a happy and isolated moment when officials decide to put their own selfish politics aside and listen to those hired them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"260\" height=\"194\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/courtroom2.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"courtroom\" title=\"courtroom\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-20414\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/news-and-articles\/washington-state-dismissing-smallpro-possession-cases\/attachment\/courtroom-3\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-20414\" title=\"courtroom\" src=\"http:\/\/www.marijuana.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/courtroom2-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Last week Americans in several states signaled their desire to abandon the government&#8217;s failed approach toward marijuana regulation.\u00a0 However, instituting the programs in Washington and Colorado that will tax, regulate, and distribute marijuana will take some time as many details will still have to be worked out.<\/p>\n<p>There have been reports in Michigan of authorities <a href=\"http:\/\/www.michiganradio.org\/post\/maintaining-status-quo-flint\" target=\"_blank\">already making contingency plans<\/a> to fight against the will of the people.\u00a0 As we already stated, it may be unwise to contest election results and ignore the wishes of voters.\u00a0 Fortunately, in Seattle, officials seem more likely to act as government and elected officials are expected to.\u00a0 Although the legalization laws will not take effect until December 6th in Washington, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg recently said \u201cI think when the people voted to change the policy, they weren\u2019t focused on when the effective date of the new policy would be. They spoke loudly and clearly that we should not treat small amounts of marijuana as an offense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We applaud Mr. Satterberg for using common sense.\u00a0 Many officials will likely cling to their &#8220;good ol&#8217; days&#8221; mindset until the very last possible moment.\u00a0 This flawed thinking will only result in unnecessary arrests, wasted taxpayer dollars, and the eventual dropping of the charges.\u00a0 While Satterberg may be the first, the Seattle Times is reporting that other prosecutors are now considering following suit.<\/p>\n<p>The relationship between lawmakers\/police and residents seems to be an issue all over the country.\u00a0 This may be for good reason as the blatant disregard for what the people want was a bubble bound to burst.\u00a0 We are happy at marijuana.net, but we also need to remain stern.\u00a0 It should not be such a happy and isolated moment when officials decide to put their own selfish politics aside and listen to those hired them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[52,166,56,9,196,51,70,1,3,321,876],"tags":[2632,2744,2636,2774,2631,5,2899,3449],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}