Representative Brian Blake introduced legislation which would once again return stiff sentences for those who sell drugs near schools or school bus stops.
In late 2014, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that the 24-month sentence enhancement for those who sell drugs near a school could only be applied once to a sentence, and not to each separate sale of drugs, regardless of the number of times someone sold drugs. This meant drug dealers had their sentence reduced, including one drug dealer in Pacific Country. This same issue arose when the court struck down multiple firearm sentence enhancements, which likewise required legislative action to restore this policy.
The legislature must act if they wanted to maintain the long-standing state drug sentence policy.
"I was glad to work with Prosecutor Mark McClain to address his request because our community wants to ensure dangerous drugs are not sold near schools," Representative Blake said.
McClain approached Blake between the legislative sessions to bring the issue to his attention and to raise concerns about the Supreme Court's decision to once again overrule the Legislature's clear directive as they did with sentence enhancements for felony offenders who use a firearm in the commission of a crime.
"Protecting our community from drug sales within a school zone, and from armed offenders, are important issues not only for Pacific County, but also across the state, and I was pleased to bring this issue forward to the other 38 elected Prosecutors who joined me in this effort to protect our communities from dangerous drug sales," Pacific County Prosecutor Mark McClain told the Herald. "I presented Representative Blake's legislation to the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, who agreed to similarly lend their support."
According to McClain, in order for this matter to reach a full hearing, it must first receive a hearing before the House Public Safety Committee. No hearing date is presently set.