- The Seattle City Council Monday approved legislation setting the fine for smoking marijuana in public at $27 a pop, putting the, um, crime on par with drinking a beer or a gin martini:
Council adopted legislation today setting fines on smoking marijuana in public at the same level as public consumption of alcohol, $27. The legislation notes that the Seattle Police Department will issue a warning to offenders whenever practical before issuing a citation. The bill requires SPD to monitor enforcement by age, race, sex and locations of any citations, so Council can evaluate whether the law is being equitably enforced. The ordinance goes into effect thirty days after it is signed into law by the executive.
Meanwhile, the Denver Police Department has reportedly told its officers they are forbidden from working as off-duty security at the city’s new retail pot stores. A Denver PD memo “prohibits officers from providing security at any business that ‘constitutes a threat to the status of dignity’ of the profession and from ‘providing security for the transportation of financial proceeds from any marijuana-related business’,” according to the report. We’ll check in with SPD to find out they plan to handle potential security work.
- Seattle’s City Council also passed a resolution for the city to study how to use public resources, including eminent domain, to save underwater mortgages:
The resolution establishes a City of Seattle Interdepartmental Team, or IDT, which will evaluate whether principal reduction and other foreclosure prevention programs effectively provide assistance to low- income homeowners. The IDT is scheduled to report back to Council on March 15, 2014 with recommendations of which approaches Seattle should consider in an effort to help low-income homeowners and revitalize communities impacted by the foreclosure crisis.
CHS reported on the resolution last week.
- The City of Seattle announced $27 million in funding to support affordable housing projects. Included in the grants is support for Capitol Hill Housing’s Haines Apartments — “preservation of 30 units of low-income housing, currently occupied by seniors and disabled residents on Capitol Hill.”
CHS Capitol Hill Seattle News
Community News For All of Seattle's Capitol Hill
I hope they really do enforce it and issue fines. It is still illegal to smoke it in public, and I’m tired of having asthma attacks in public places or having to shield myself like a bank robber whenever I go anywhere to avoid the drug fumes and carcinogens of others. The majority does NOT use pot, and we deserve to have our rights respected, too (I don’t care what everyone else does in PRIVATE)
It’s interesting that, apparently, security people will be part of the operation at retail pot stores. This wasn’t the case at the now-defunct state liquor stores, so I would have to conclude that the pot stores will be high-risk businesses as far as crime is concerned. Perhaps the idea is that having security on-hand will act as a deterrence, but it gives me pause that we will now have many new businesses which require security to operate safely.
And, obviously, security personnel will increase the cost of running pot stores, and this will be passed on to the customers.
Cal, what are you smoking, hon? Walk into Safeway and go to the liquor aisle. You think the guy in the security company outfit is there to help you select a bottle of Dimple Pinch?