Cannabis Convicts No More
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]S[/dropcap]eattle may as well be a utopian dream land in comparison to some U.S. cities. World-class food, legal cannabis, $15-an-hour minimum wage and a breathtakingly beautiful landscape make Seattle high on the list of the best places to live, time and time again. Now you can add an even more sensible city government to that list of perks.
The offices of Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Seattle City Attorney Pete Homes announced in early February that the city would be vacating certain past misdemeanor cannabis-related convictions for city residents. In a time when more bad than good news is coming out of government offices, this announcement came as a welcome reprieve to anyone who acknowledges the failed “War on Drugs.”
Mayor Jenny Durkan released a statement on the city’s decision to vacate prior cannabis charges, and she did not hold back on her intentions. “The ‘War on Drugs’ had impacts on people, especially people of color and their families. Peoples’ lives were ruined for misdemeanor marijuana offenses. This action is a necessary first step in righting the wrongs of the past and putting our progressive values into action.” Durkan stated. “Addressing decades of unjust conviction—and particularly the damage wrought on communities of color—won’t happen overnight. We must provide more effective alternatives to prosecution and incarceration through drug and mental health courts, restoring rights and supporting re-entry.”
Durkan is absolutely correct in her assertion that cannabis prohibition unfairly impacts communities of color. According to Washington State data, African-Americans were 2.9 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than people who are white, and Latinos and Native Americans were 1.6 times more likely to face arrest than white people. Equal rights advocates have long worked to overturn of previous cannabis arrests in legal cannabis states, in order to dismantle some of the damage cannabis prohibition has done to communities of color. Durban’s statement, as well as her actions, are helping to make positive changes in the right direction.
City Attorney Pete Holmes has also expressed his approval, support and partnership for this action. “The city of Seattle has long been a pioneer in changing the way we approach marijuana. I was proud to end the practice of charging simple marijuana possession cases when I became City Attorney and to sponsor I-502 two years later. Today we are taking another important step by moving to vacate past convictions for conduct that is now legal,” Holmes explained.
“We must provide more effective alternatives to prosecution and incarceration through drug and mental health courts, restoring rights and supporting re-entry.”
Seattle follows in the steps of the progressive beacon San Francisco in this revolutionary action. Hopefully other cities in legal cannabis states small and large, follow suit. For Seattleites who worried that Durkan may not be as progressive as Carey Moon, who she ran against in the recent mayoral election, hopefully this comes as a relief. This is a good first step in establishing herself as an ally to advocates of both cannabis and racial equality. If this is a sign of things to come for Seattle, then it’s a good one.
