Pubdate: Sat, 26 Nov 2011
Source: Bellingham Herald (WA)
Copyright: 2011 Bellingham Herald
Contact:  http://www.bellinghamherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/43
Author: Parrick Guimond

UNHAPPY WITH LACK OF DRUG PROSECUTIONS

It should come as no surprise that the former U.S. Attorney in 
Seattle has endorsed an effort to legalize marijuana for recreational 
use in Washington state. During her tenure, Kate Pflaumer, a former 
sorority sister of Hillary Clinton, refused to file federal cases on 
marijuana smugglers captured by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents 
on our northern border in Whatcom County by steadily increasing the 
"threshold amount" of seized marijuana required for federal 
prosecution. By the time she left her position, the threshold amount 
measured in hundreds of pounds.

I believe the effect of her protocol resulted in the Whatcom County 
District Attorney's Office having to undertake multiple prosecutions 
at local expense. Before she left office, Pflaumer refused federal 
prosecution on a 5,000-pound consignment of cocaine seized at sea off 
Cape Flattery, Wash., because it was not destined for the United 
States. Never mind that the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Diego was 
concurrently prosecuting similar cocaine cases involving 
interdictions by the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy as far away as Central 
and South America.

Patrick J. Guimond

Blaine
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart