UPDATE:
The $1 value came from the report but might have been just a filler amount for the officer completing the report. I’ve asked SPD for clarification. Regardless, one buck doesn’t make any sense for an entire ounce so revising the headline. Does the new amount change your thoughts on the incident?
UPDATE:
Here’s some additional info and a good note for future crime report perusal from SPD spokesperson Mark Jamieson:
On the new reporting system it is important to read the narrative in its entirety. The total amount of marijuana was 27.2 grams, which, as you can imagine is way more than $1.00. Here is the explanation for the why $1.00 was entered:
All property entered on a property report must have a value. Either enter the estimated value, $1.00 for UNKNOWN value, or $2.00 for NO value.
Since it was unknown what the exact value was, the officer chose to enter $1.00 for UNKNOWN. The value could be anywhere $270.00 on (since marijuana prices currently run anywhere from $10 to $20 a gram, depending on location, quality, demand, etc.) Hope that explains it for you.
Original Report:
Last week, we shared a look inside a small-time drug arrest in the neighborhood: A $10 heroin bust in Cal Anderson Park
This week, in the interest of diversity and in celebration of this weekend’s Seattle Hempfest 2009, we bring you another tale of the Seattle Police Department’s war on drugs: A $1 (to $270 depending on quality) marijuana bust in Dick’s parking lot
People are getting arrested, therefore “crime” is going down.
Unghhhhhhhh
What a complete utter waste of resources. Someone open up another multimillion dollar prison so we can be “protected” from these horrible reefer-maddened criminals.
So, Sgt. Lam thought there might be sex going on in a parked car, so went to investigate, and ended up holding them at gunpoint?
I think Sgt. Lam needs to be assigned to 3rd and Pine downtown to intimidate the folks regularly threatening each other with knives at a major bus stop full of commuters.
I thought that SPD was trying a new tack on drug busts…you know, hit the big fish hard, let the little fish off the hook if they promise not to do again and do some community service. Oh wait, this is posession, not a drug market sale. Never mind, business as usual.
The same thing happens on Capitol Hill at bus stops, in parks, and on the streets.
I’m not sure why it is considered “intimidation” to do his job.
Our pot laws are retarded…but that doesn’t change the fact that The Man found 20+ grams of pot (almost an ounce) in the car.
I don’t know where you buy your pot but if you can get an ounce for a buck, hit me up.
If you bother to read the full text you’ll see it says that when the officer approached the car the passenger threw his/her hands down into their lap and possibly towards the floor or the door’s storage compartment. Most likely to hide the pot, but officers always have to assume the person could be reaching for a gun when their hands go suddenly out of view. Seems totally reasonable to draw your gun as a precaution at that point.
Based on the description it might be leaves and not buds, in which case it would indeed be almost worthless (also makes sense to be rolling joints).
Then again it’s not common to buy leaf by the ounce. Usually some grower will just give it away to make hash or sell huge bags of it.
More than likely it was a mistake or he meant to write 1oz.
As soon as Sgt. Lam realized that the people were not, as he suspected, having sex in the vehicle, he should have moved on to more pressing issues, regardless of whether he thought one person who appeared to be an adult was rolling a tobacco cigarette or a marijuana cigarette (how could he tell the difference, anyway?). The investigation, arrest and prosecution of marijuana offenses, where the marijuana was intended for adult personal use, is — by law — his lowest law enforcement priority.
Are we to believe that there was nothing else happening at the time that was worthy of the officer’s attention? As a result of this officer disregarding the will of the people, several hours of scarce police resources were wasted.
Jdavin, it seems you didn’t read the report closely. That didn’t happen as the officer approached the vehicle. The person in the car moved his hands after the officer approached the vehicle, realized that the occupants were not having sex, saw one of them rolling up something (might have been marijuana, might have been tobacco), disregarded SMC 12A.20.060, and began an investigation of suspected adult personal possession of marijuana by contacting one occupant. That’s when the cause for alarm occurred. Had he moved on to higher law enforcement priorities — which is to say, anything else — as the law requires him to do, he would not have contacted the person, and this entire dangerous waste of time could have been avoided.
Phil, gerwitz was implying that the officer inappropriately held them at gunpoint and that he intimated them. I was only responding to that implication, not to whether or not it was appropriate to investigate the couple after the officer determined that they were just rolling marijuana. I’m not saying it wasn’t a waste of time, just that there was no indication in the written report that Sgt Lam was trying to intimidate them or inappropriately drew his gun.
SMC 12A.20.060
Either you are a lawyer or you break the law often enough to know it that well.
Just reading this makes me feel so much better – saved from someone making out in a parked car, off Broadway on a lot of some sort. WOW, do I feel safe from this possible crime and its impact on society.
THEN
A big time pot bust, same locus, a joint or two, mostly leaf, and by law an almost non crime. WOW, do I feel much safer right now.
For those who think the cops really do their job, read the report again. Officer Lam had a boring shift, or, was unhappy at home, or, just likes to roust people for nothing.
There might be a bit of the voyeur here too, thought he might see a bit of naked stuff as he went to the car …
Thanks, CHS, this makes the minor crime list at the top. BOO, BOO, hiss, hiss, to the cop shop. You are wasting our tax dollars and your poor decisions relative to crimes reduce justice and the law to a searing mockery.
$200 still seems low. Average oz would cost somewhere around $250 and have a street value of $320. Good stuff could cost more like $300 for the oz and have a street value of closer to $400.
Yeah, just revised again. Crowdsourced the price of an ounce of pot.
Sir or Madam: I am a concerned and active citizen — one who is not hiding behind a pseudonym or commenting anonymously. I volunteered for Sensible Seattle (the group behind Initiative 75), attended more Marijuana Policy Review Panel meetings than most of the members of the panel did, and am an active member of the Cannabis Defense Coalition.
One need not be a lawyer or a criminal in order to be familiar with the law, recognize the injustice, ineffectiveness, and damage caused by our federal government’s prohibitionist drug policy, advocate reformation of that drug policy, and call foul when our police ignore a law we were compelled to create because police priorities were so drastically misaligned with those of the people they are employed to serve.
> Either enter the estimated value, $1.00 for UNKNOWN value, or $2.00 for NO value.
Haha. So their rule is to enter $2.00 for NO value. That makes a lot of sense. Guess they didn’t think of entering $0.00 for no value. Zero was invented like a thousand years ago but I guess Seattle police haven’t discovered it yet. :)
your right… Sgt should have just left them alone. Marijuana is the lowest law enforcement priority. However it is still illegal to possess. Officers can find a decent amount of marijuana that someone possesses illegally and just hand it back… You dont know the circumstances behind what is going on until it is all said and done. The officers didn’t know if there was a deal going down, who the people might be, or any other circumstances until they have finished the stop. People bitch that officers aren’t out catching drug dealers, muderers, and rapists. But wait how do officers find these people if they aren’t out stopping people for what you consider minor offenses. Wasn’t the southcenter mall shooter caught on a marijuana possesion charge? And driving high… Yeah everyone does it and you’ll argue that it is safer than driving drunk. But it is still DUI. DUI seems like it could be a higher Law Enforcement priority to me. In the end the two people were not even booked into the jail and released from the scene. What more do you people want.
Dthquazi wrote:
“Marijuana is the lowest law enforcement priority. However it is still illegal to possess.”
It’s illegal to jaywalk or sit on the sidewalk, but I think we’d all agree that our police have more important things to deal with. I don’t like the potential for abuse that selective enforcement of the law creates, but in the case of the cannabis plant, extreme measures were warranted, and whether they like it or not, the law requires police to deprioritize busting adults for personal possession of cannabis.
“Officers can find a decent amount of marijuana that someone possesses illegally and just hand it back…”
Probably not. But when they see something that might be marijuana, they can choose to give the holder of it the benefit of the doubt and move on to higher priorities — which again, is anything and everything else.
“You dont know the circumstances behind what is going on until it is all said and done.”
Sure. No one but those directly involved will know unless our police stop doing whatever else they might be doing for us and investigate.
“People bitch that officers aren’t out catching drug dealers, muderers, and rapists. But wait how do officers find these people if they aren’t out stopping people for what you consider minor offenses.”
First, many of us complain that police should investigate crimes against people first, property crimes second, and deal with everything else with whatever resources are left, but instead spend lots of their time and our money investigating victimless crimes like adults wagering on card games and sporting events, having sexual relations by way of mutual agreement involving money, and possessing substances that our federal government currently prohibits them from possessing.
Second, please consider whether you are are advocating for enforcement of laws that you would otherwise have our police deprioritize simply to allow them to conduct a fishing expedition. Even though it would be a highly effective way to catch criminals, it’s unconstitutional for our government to stop all the good people just to find the few bad people, and it seems rather unjust to me for us to make criminals out of people who would otherwise not be considered criminals simply to lessen the need for our police to engage in good ‘ole gumshoeing.
“Wasn’t the southcenter mall shooter caught on a marijuana possesion charge?”
I don’t know, but that’s irrelevant. For every violent criminal caught because of marijuana laws, many thousands of good, otherwise-law-abiding people are harmed because of those laws.
“In the end the two people were not even booked into the jail and released from the scene. What more do you people want.”
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I want the two people not to be accused of drug crimes, not to destroy their chances of receiving federal student loans, not to waste their time in court, not to waste their money on attorneys, not to waste our prosecutors’ and judges’ time trying them, and for our police to adhere to the law and move on to higher priorities instead of wasting the time that they did in this case. Those two officers very likely spent more than a quarter of their shifts dealing with this.
My wife received a jaywalking ticket downtown recently. So, the law is enforced as are others regardless of priority. Priority doesn’t mean ignore.
good people would stay in their homes and smoke marijuana where police couldn’t care less. People making poor decisions drive somewhere, smoke marijuana in public, then drive somewhere else or home which is DUI. I know you are not advocation driving under the influence, but that is what happens. Not everyone does this I understand, but I dont see this as a fishing expidition, I this this as enforcing a law. It is by law the lowest priority, but still a law none the less.
I dont see this incident as the police harassing innocent people. Smoking marijuana is breaking the law. Yeah it can be overlooked and often is. These two people were not responsible IE doing what was done. What if the officers let them go and they went and hit a bicyclist, killing them. It would then be on the officers.
Stay home, be responsible and use some common sense and you will have no problems. Stop bitching at the police for doing their job.
If you want to smoke it, save yourself some trouble and be discreet. It is as simple as that. You won’t have problems and the police won’t bother you.
If you lack common sense well…
Dthquazi, you wrote:
“But wait how do officers find [drug dealers, muderers, and rapists] if they aren’t out stopping people for what you consider minor offenses.”
The answer is: by investigating those crimes, not by spending their days fishing for criminals by busting people for minor offenses, particularly for one that is, by law, their lowest law enforcement priority.
“Stop bitching at the police for doing their job.”
Is anyone here bitching about our police doing their job? Their job is to serve and protect — within the boundaries of the law. There’s a good argument to be made that the investigation and arrest that happened after the first officer determined that the suspected sexual act was not happening were conducted in violation of the law.
Of course, this person would have been better off to keep his cannabis out of sight until reaching the privacy of his own home. However, he wasn’t exactly tailgating with a three-foot bong; he was rolling a cigarette, in his car, out of sight. If you read the report, you’ll find that it was actually his failed attempt at discretion that drew Sgt. Lam’s attention in the first place. Smokie McRollsematdicks would be well off to study this 2001 illustration for The Stranger‘s “How to” series by local artist Ellen Forney.