Shannon Bowman, of Kettle Falls, Washington, poses for a self-portrait on this undated picture in Newport, Wash. Bowman, previously referred to as Shannon Blake, gained a state Supreme Court docket ruling early within the 12 months difficult the constitutionality of Washington’s drug possession legislation. The ruling prompted lawmakers to overtake the state’s method to drug possession in a invoice signed Thursday, Could 13, 2021, by Gov. Jay Inslee. (Shannon Bowman through AP)
Shannon Bowman, of Kettle Falls, Washington, poses for a self-portrait on this undated picture in Newport, Wash. Bowman, previously referred to as Shannon Blake, gained a state Supreme Court docket ruling early within the 12 months difficult the constitutionality of Washington’s drug possession legislation. The ruling prompted lawmakers to overtake the state’s method to drug possession in a invoice signed Thursday, Could 13, 2021, by Gov. Jay Inslee. (Shannon Bowman through AP)
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The denims had been from American Eagle, through Goodwill, they usually had been too brief for his or her new proprietor, 6-foot Shannon Bowman.
So Bowman stitched a pair inches of denim onto the underside of the legs and put them on for the primary time two days after her good friend had given them to her. She didn’t discover the tiny, practically empty baggie of methamphetamine within the coin pocket.
That reality greater than 4 years later would result in a Washington state Supreme Court docket determination putting down Washington’s drug possession legislation; the anticipated trip of tens of hundreds of prison convictions courting again a long time; and the overhaul of the state’s method to drug possession signed into legislation by Gov. Jay Inslee on Thursday.
“It’s cool there’s lots of people who’re going to have a second probability to make issues proper,” Bowman mentioned in a current interview. “Hopefully they go down an excellent highway.”
The invoice signed by Inslee makes drug possession a misdemeanor, somewhat than the felony it was underneath the previous legislation. Inslee mentioned the measure will “assist scale back the disparate influence of the earlier drug possession statute on folks of colour.”
“It strikes the system from responding to possession as a felony to specializing in the behavioral well being response, which is a way more applicable and profitable technique to deal with the wants that underlie drug abuse,” the governor mentioned.
Oregon this 12 months grew to become the one different state to decriminalize the possession of small quantities of all forms of medication and enhance entry to remedy. Washington’s measure likewise goals to drastically develop remedy providers and outreach, together with to homeless folks with extreme behavioral well being points.
The Washington measure requires police to divert a defendant’s first two offenses to remedy earlier than the case even made it to a prosecutor, and if a defendant’s case ever reached a prosecutor, the prosecutor would be capable of divert as properly. Regional “restoration navigator” groups will probably be set as much as assist present “continuous, fast, and widespread entry to a complete continuum of care” to “all individuals with substance abuse dysfunction.”
In two years, the availability classifying drug possession as a misdemeanor expires, reverting to present legislation with no prohibition. That’s designed to provide lawmakers time to re-evaluate how the state’s new insurance policies are working and doubtlessly work out a long-term technique for drug coverage.
The 5-4 ruling in Bowman’s case – referred to as the Blake determination, as a result of she was charged underneath a surname she hasn’t utilized in greater than 20 years – held that Washington’s drug legislation was unconstitutional as a result of it didn’t require prosecutors to show {that a} defendant knowingly had the medication. That left the possession of small quantities of medicine, together with heroin, cocaine and meth, authorized underneath state legislation, even for kids.
The justices issued the ruling in February, properly into the legislative session in Olympia. Lawmakers scrambled to jot down a brand new legislation.
Bowman, 43, now lives in a motor residence on her mother and father’ property close to Kettle Falls, north of Spokane. She has been working as a logger however the felony on her document lengthy stored her from renting her personal place, she mentioned.
On the time of her arrest in 2016, she and her boyfriend, who was hooked on heroin, had been renting a room in a Spokane home for $200 a month. That they had just lately been homeless.
Police took her to jail, the place her blood stress was so excessive that they despatched her to a hospital. When she returned to the jail, guards searched her and located the baggie in her coin pocket.
Bowman informed the AP she had kicked an habit to ache tablets and by no means used meth due to her blood stress. Had she identified the baggie was in her denims, she would have ditched it whereas she was on the hospital, she mentioned.
She didn’t assume the end result of her case made for good public coverage.
“For there to be no punishment in any respect, I didn’t really feel like that was going to assist something. However felonies for folks like me? That was a bit of excessive,” she mentioned.
