Racial gap in pot prosecutions, report finds

Since Seattle voters reduced pot possession to the lowest law-enforcement priority, marijuana cases and prosecutions have fallen, according to a report released Monday by a review panel.

Despite the overall decrease, the report showed a racial gap that some panel members called concerning. Since Initiative 75 took effect in fall 2003, the number of cases involving black men has exceeded cases involving white men.

"It's shocking," D'Adre Cunningham said about the numbers at a Seattle City Council meeting Monday. Cunningham served on the 11-member, City Council-appointed panel and is an attorney at The Defender Association. "They obviously show some issues of concern."

Supporters hoped the initiative would reduce the number of cases in which marijuana was the primary reason for a police officer to make contact with a suspect. According to Washington state law, possession of up to 40 grams of marijuana is a misdemeanor that carries a minimum sentence of one day in jail and a $250 fine.

The marijuana policy-review panel's final report showed that the number of marijuana cases the Seattle Police Department referred to the Seattle city attorney's office fell from 332 in 2000 to 148 in 2006. The attorney's office also brought charges in fewer cases, from 184 in 2000 to 125 in 2006.

Dominic Holden, a panel member and one of the 2003 leaders of the campaign to pass the initiative, said the report "shows I-75 works exactly as promised to voters. It saved law-enforcement resources to focus on other more serious crimes." The report estimated that the city spent $66,190 less on marijuana cases from 2003 to 2004. The city also spent $25,828 on the panel's four-year work.

The panel concluded that there was no increase in marijuana usage among young people, no increase in crime and no adverse impact on public health.

Although the numbers dropped overall, more cases were filed against black men than white men after the initiative passed, both in number and in proportion to population. The racial disparity, cases filed as a percentage of the population, existed before the initiative's passage but has since widened.

"There are more black men being arrested and prosecuted for personal use of marijuana than adult white men," said Alison Chinn Holcomb, a panel member and director of the Marijuana Education Project for ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) Washington.

City Attorney Tom Carr emphasized that the number of marijuana cases is small and difficult to draw conclusions from, compared with the roughly 20,000 cases his office handles each year.

"They're really small unless it's you," Councilmember Richard McIver said at the meeting.

Carr and Capt. Mike Meehan, head of the Police Department's narcotics section, both were on the panel and recommended the council repeal the law, which they have always opposed.

"Instructing your public agency to pay less attention to crime is not good policy," Carr said.

Meehan said the cases have gone down because officers know the law changed.

"While the number of cases did decline, I cannot say it was solely because of the initiative," he said, and the racial disparity in the report does not mean there's a bias in law enforcement.

His primary concern is how youth are reacting. "I don't want to send a message to kids that drug use is OK," he said.

Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who also was on the panel, said he wants to continue to collect data on both cases and public-health issues, but he does not support changing the law.

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com

The information in this article, originally published January 8, 2008, was corrected January 10, 2008. The original version story on the racial gap in pot prosecutions incorrectly stated that the number of cases against black men has increased since Initiative 75 passed. The overall number of cases has fallen, but there were more cases filed against black men than white men, both in number and proportion to population.