Pubdate: Mon, 15 Feb 2016
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2016 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Donald W. Meyers, Yakima Herald-Republic

YAKIMA POLICE CHIEF: POT SALES NOT WORTH RISK

Opposes Marijuana Shops in City

Says Problems Not Worth Tax Revenue

YAKIMA - Even though marijuana can be legally bought just down the 
road, Yakima's top cop wants to keep marijuana shops out of his city.

"I don't see anything positive coming out of it," police Chief 
Dominic Rizzi Jr. said of a proposal to allow retail sales of 
marijuana in Yakima.

Rizzi sees any financial benefits to the city outweighed by increases 
in crime and other problems related to addiction.

But police in two cities that allow marijuana sales said the shops do 
not appear to increase crime.

While Yakima residents may legally possess up to an ounce of 
marijuana for personal use, and the city is home to a state-certified 
marijuana-testing lab, Yakima has banned marijuana shops since 
January 2014, citing the 56 percent of city voters who opposed the 
2012 initiative that legalized marijuana in the state.

The city's first - and so far only - marijuana shop briefly opened 
last year when Jaime Campos unsuccessfully challenged the ban. The 
city shut down the shop, and a Yakima County Superior Court judge 
upheld the ban.

But this month the City Council, acting on a motion by Councilwoman 
Kathy Coffey, voted to have city staff begin the process of lifting 
the ban, citing her own experience watching two husbands die from lung cancer.

Cancer patients sometimes use marijuana for pain relief and to treat 
the nausea and lack of appetite that accompany chemotherapy.

"I'm tired of the stigma. Can't we make life a little more 
comfortable for people that really need it?" Coffey said in an 
earlier interview.

Coffey has since said she will asked the city to postpone action on 
her request - which was approved in a 4-2 vote - until May.

Coffey said one of the reasons she asked for the delay is to allow 
city staff to review evidence regarding what effect marijuana has on 
factors such as crime.

"There is information on both sides that we need to look at," Coffey 
said, adding that Rizzi "was entitled to his opinion."

But Rizzi would rather see the issue dropped permanently.

Making marijuana more available would increase the number of DUI 
cases and assaults from people acting under the influence of 
marijuana, Rizzi and Sgt. Dave Cortez warned.

Cortez, a patrol sergeant who headed the gang unit, said gang members 
have been known to use marijuana to calm their nerves before going 
out to commit a drive-by shooting or assault.

Yakima police had to deal with a non-injury accident Feb. 9 where the 
driver was suspected of being under the influence of marijuana, 
Cortez said. Toxicology tests are pending, but witnesses told police 
the driver had used marijuana just before the accident, Cortez said.

Since the marijuana initiative passed, the State Patrol's toxicology 
laboratory reported a statewide increase in the number of impaired 
drivers testing positive for THC, the chemical that gives marijuana 
users the "high."

The crime lab's statistics show an increase in those tested for 
marijuana, said Brianna Peterson, manager of the crime lab's 
toxicology division.

In 2012, the year the initiative passed, 18.6 percent of suspected 
impaired drivers tested positive for THC, compared with 28 percent in 
2014, the year marijuana shops first opened.

But statistics from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police 
Chiefs show that marijuana-related crimes investigated by police such 
as possession, manufacturing and delivering marijuana, dropped almost 
63 percent from 2012 to 2014.

In Yakima, the number of drug crimes decreased by almost 45 percent, 
from 398 in 2012 to 222 in 2014.

The data also show that of the drug arrests made in 2012, slightly 
more than half were for marijuana, compared with 30 percent in 2014. 
But the percentage of arrests for stimulants such as heroin and 
cocaine went up from 28 percent to 45 percent.

In Ellensburg, where there are two marijuana shops, police have not 
seen any shift in crime that could be attributed to the stores, 
police Capt. Dan Hansberry said.

Likewise, Greg Cobb, Rizzi's counterpart in Union Gap, said crime 
statistics for 2014 and 2015 show increases in theft, robbery and DUI 
cases, but he said there is no data showing whether retail marijuana 
or other factors contributed to it. There are three retail marijuana 
shops in Union Gap.

Permitting marijuana sales, Rizzi said, would send children the wrong 
message. If the city is permitting the sales, he and Cortez argued, 
kids may think that it is OK to use it.

But Coffey said there is another important principle at play as well, 
and that is respect for law.

"This is a state law, and we need to follow the law," Coffey said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom