The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Columbia County Prosecutor looks for options to mitigate ruling's impact on county.

DAYTON—On Feb. 25, the Washington State Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a law that makes it a felony to possess illegal drugs, even if a person didn’t know they were in possession. The court’s ruling said the state law was unconstitutional because it criminalized passive, unknowing conduct in violation of due process protections.

Columbia County Prosecuting Attorney Dale Slack said the Supreme Court warned the legislature that Washington’s strict liability drug possession statute, RCW 69.50.4013, was a problematic law but they didn’t go back to fix it.

The justices concluded that lawmakers had been aware of the statute’s flaw for many years but decided not to change it. Therefore, the whole law was unconstitutional, meaning every case that involves drug possession must be reexamined.

Now, local law enforcement officers will be relying more on informants and controlled drug buys, rather than simple possession to make arrests, he said.

Slack said prosecutors preferred using “possession of controlled substances” to get people into treatment and now need to rely on collateral crimes like burglaries, assaults, and domestic issues to achieve the same outcome.

This ruling has the potential for an “avalanche” of other legal consequences, Slack said.

He told the board of county commissioners last week that after this ruling, there is no state law making it illegal to have hard drugs in a person’s possession and every case dealing with simple possession in the county is retroactively unconstitutional.

With this ruling, anyone convicted of “simple possession” may be able to have their conviction thrown out. The court could rule that they are owed any fines they paid. For the vast majority of felony cases, a $600 fine is imposed by the court. There have been 120 controlled substance cases in Columbia County since 2004, said Stack.

“It is not our fault,” Slack said. “We have been following the law, and also good policy, in trying to keep our community safe, and now we’re going to potentially get saddled with this debt from a law that has been declared bad.”

Slack hopes state legislators will develop a scheme where the state will reimburse these claims since most of the fees and penalties go to the state. This would help take the financial burden off the county.

The legislature could introduce a new law, specifying only a person who knowingly or intentionally possesses a controlled substance is guilty. However, a new law cannot be made retroactive, and cases vacated due to the ruling would not be affected.

Slack told the board of county commissioners this week, he might be able to craft a local ordinance outlawing the possession of controlled substances in Columbia County. He shared that other counties and municipalities are also looking at this option.

There are many unknowns, and prosecutors are working on the issues created by this action.

“It is just going to be a mess for a lot of people, going forward,” he told the commissioners.

Slack thinks when people know about this ruling and its immediate consequences, they will force the legislature to do something about it.