Marijuana Approval Brings Legal Questions

(Summer 2018) This spring Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes requested that the Municipal Court drop approximately 542 misdemeanor marijuana charges. Holmes made it a campaign issue back in 2009, and the city stopped trying such cases after that time. Since Washington State has legalized recreational marijuana, some Seattle officials, including the mayor, feel it is appropriate to vacate the charges.

Meanwhile, those with felony marijuana drug charges are seeing a significant impact on their lives including hurdles like securing housing, finding employment and traveling internationally. One such individual argues that marijuana needs to be removed from Washington’s state-controlled substance act to solve the problem.

Parties interested in the outcome of the misdemeanor decision are awaiting the Municipal Court judge’s next move. He can choose to drop the misdemeanor cases immediately, turn down Holmes’s motion or order a hearing.

On the other side of the country, Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s Democrat congressional delegate, is promoting new legislation that would block Section 8 landlords from discrimination toward medical marijuana patients. The law would stop eviction of patients who use medical marijuana in states where it is legal. The measure is also being considered as an amendment to the 2019 fiscal budget, and in this form would prohibit the use of federal funds to refuse housing to renters who use medical marijuana legally.

Currently, because marijuana use is illegal under federal law and public housing is overseen by the government’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), tenants using medical marijuana legally at the state level are still violating federal law and can be evicted by landlords solely because of usage.

It should be noted that Norton is a D.C. delegate and not a voting member of Congress, although she can vote in committee. As such, she can only urge her cohorts in Congress to support these measures.

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