Felony not appropriate for underage marijuana use

By The Herald Editorial Board 
Confusion over language in the recent rewrite of the state's medical marijuana laws may have made possession of a small amount of marijuana by minors a felony punishable by up to five years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

That's a heavy punishment, the significance of which seemed to escape most when the bill was passed and signed into law by the governor in April. A felony charge prevents the possibility for any diversion programs usually available to juveniles. A felony conviction for a minor means a permanent mark on his or her record that would make it exceedingly difficult to find work or get a student loan for college.

Last week, the prosecutor in Asotin County in Washington's southeast corner charged three teens, 14, 15 and 17, with felonies for possession of marijuana, an offense that previous to the passage of Senate Bill 5052 earlier this year, would have been a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of 90 days in jail.

Depending on who you talk to among those involved in writing and approving the legislation, the result was intended, unintended, or not even what's actually outlined in the legislation.
At least one legislator, Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, said the felony charge was the intention, the Associated Press reported, a tougher penalty designed to discourage the use of marijuana by minors at a time when cannabis was being made more accessible to adults.

The only exception in the law for minors was for use of medical marijuana with the consent of parent or guardian and the minor's doctor.
But a spokeswoman for Gov. Jay Inslee said Friday that saddling minors with felony records for marijuana possession wasn't the governor's intention as he worked with lawmakers. Keeping marijuana out of the hands of minors was a priority, “but there are other ways of doing that without charging them with felonies,” Inslee spokeswoman Jaime Smith, told the Associated Press.

The confusion crops up in the exceptions the legislation makes, as was pointed out by reason.com's Hit & Run blog: SB 5052 makes it unlawful for those under 21 to possess, manufacture, sell or distribute marijuana, and does list it as a class C felony, but it makes an exception under existing law to consider possession under 40 grams — about 1.4 ounces — a misdemeanor.

With that clarification and after consulting with the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, Asotin County Prosecutor Ben Nichols told the Lewiston Tribune in neighboring Lewiston, Idaho, that he planned to amend the three teens' charges to misdemeanors.

But that leaves us with an apparent disagreement among lawmakers and the governor's office as to what was intended and with legislation that should be clarified to avoid the potential for other minors to be charged with a felony for simple possession of a small amount of marijuana.

We don't want minors using cannabis, any more than we want them to be drinking alcohol. The current maximum penalty for underage drinking is up to two months in jail and a $500 fine. That would seem to be enough of a consequence to discourage underage use of marijuana without needlessly burdening youths with a felony record.