City of Wenatchee Moves to Establish Public Emergency for Drug Possession

Wenatchee City Council will consider declaring a public emergency for controlled substances Thursday in response to the State Supreme Court's decision that possession of drugs isn't deemed illegal. The case was State v. Blake when a woman claimed a bag of meth in her jeans was not hers because she had borrowed the pants.

"The city attorney, chief of police and prosecutors are very concerned about the Blake decision," said Mayor Frank Kuntz. "Which basically, for lack of a better way of doing it, made drug possession no longer a crime in the state of Washington."

According to Kuntz, consensus among local municipalities and counties is to add 'knowingly' to the possession code in order to avoid the loophole that stemmed from the court case. The city of Wenatchee was advised by the city attorney and prosecutor to do this for the city's code.

The emergency part of the code allows the law to become effective 24 hours after adopted as opposed to a normal law that takes 30 days.

The council will vote on Thursday night.