In this YouTube video, Q13 Fox News breaks down the latest Washington State Supreme Court ruling on drug possession.
The Supreme Court in Washington state declared a previous felony drug possession rule unconstitutional. Before this, if a person was found to be in possession of drugs, prosecutors did not have to prove that the drugs truly belonged to that person and that they had the intent to distribute it.
Effectively this criminalizes passive and unknown criminal activities.
Every other state requires proof of the opposite for a successful conviction.
Some aren’t happy with the new ruling citing that officers won’t be able to appropriately intervene when finding an individual in possession of the drugs. Opposers to the new ruling state that this recent ruling will contribute to the ongoing overdose crisis.
Lawmakers are looking at possibly overturning thousands of previous drug possession cases where the individual only became incarcerated due to innocently and unknowingly being in possession or moving drugs.
Supporters of the new law say they will be working with various agencies to overturn previous convictions and remove them from the affected individual’s records.
