REPORTER
COVINGTON | MAPLE VALLEY | BLACK DIAMOND
NEWSLINE 425-432-1209
HEALTH | A new measles case reported in King County [page 7]
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2015
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
Strong Strokes | The Kentlake boys make a splash at the SPSL Swim and Dive Championships [9]
WEBSITE | Check the website for breaking news, sports and weather stories. maplevalleyreporter.com or covingtonreporter.com
Hemp, a casualty of marijuana prohibition BY REBECCA GOURLEY rgourley@covingtonreporter.com
H
emp is neither a drug nor a hallucinogen, but it’s still considered a controlled substance by the federal government. However, a combination of new federal and state laws passed in the last year could eliminate restrictions on growing hemp in Washington. In the early 1600s, hemp was used as legal tender in what is now Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland, according to the Public Broadcasting Service Frontline website. The Virginia Assembly made it a requirement for farmers to grow hemp because of its versatility. That changed in 1970 when hemp was lumped with marijuana and put onto the Controlled Substances Act. Until February 2014, no one has been allowed to grow hemp in the U.S. because it was considered a Schedule I drug, alongside its cousin, pot. Before that happened, hemp was used to create rope, sails and clothing. In fact, the word canvas comes from the word cannabis. Hemp contains virtually no tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC), the psychoactive drug found in marijuana, even though the two come from the same plant. Hemp is defined as the stalks, stems and sterilized seeds of cannabis sativa that contain less than 0.3 percent THC concentration, dry weight, and marijuana is the leaves, flowers and viable seeds of the same plant. So how did hemp get rolled into the same joint as marijuana when it has no psychoactive ingredients?
EARLY REEFER Let’s go all the way back to the early 1900s, when the Mexican Revolution ended. According to PBS, people traveled from Mexico and into the U.S. and brought marijuana for recreational use with them. Once the drug became associated with the new immigrants, fear of both started setting in. According to Sunil Aggarwal, M.D., Ph.D., a cannabis researcher at New York University and a University of Washington graduate, William Randolph Hearst, a newspaper publisher, printed sensationalized stories to spread fear about marijuana and the violent tendencies of its users. The Hearst newspapers “began to use race-laden lan-
guage to frighten people about cannabis,” Aggarwal said in the 2014 documentary “Hooked: Illegal drugs and how they got that way – Marijuana”. The film was originally aired on the History Channel, but it can also be found on YouTube. [ more HEMP page 6 ]
County sheriff’s office cool on hot pursuits BY ERIC MANDEL emandel@covingtonreporter.com
Reading Fundamentals
Finn Mathern, 2, of Covington, gets some reading and sign language lessons from his mom, Jennifer, left, at the Covington Library Tuesday. His father, Gerrel, and 7-month-old brother, Leo, look on. ERIC MANDEL, The Reporter
There are few instances where police must weigh risk versus reward more than with high-speed pursuits. For King County, in the battle between public safety and crime reduction, the former ideal wins more than one-third of the time. “Sometimes the risk outweighs the value of continuing a pursuit,” said Covington Police Chief Kevin Klason. “…There’s always another day.” According to the King County Sheriff Office’s pursuit review database, officers terminated pursuit of eluding vehicles 36 percent of the time over the last three years. While that doesn’t mean everyone who runs from the law gets away scot-free, Klason said there are some people who know they can bypass the directive of a police siren and flashing lights by not stopping. “Career criminals are very well aware of that,” he said. Instances of prolonged police chases are uncommon in King County. The Sheriff ’s Office reported 368 pursuit incidents from January 2012-15. A high major-
ity of those pursuits, 88 percent, lasted fewer than five miles — 64 percent less than two miles. The pursuits end for a variety of reasons, but the most likely result was collision (78). Among the reasons officers terminated the pursuit, the most frequent was “danger outweighed need to apprehend” (50), followed by “violation did not warrant risk of pursuit” (41) and “officer lost sight of suspect vehicle” (33). The database lists only one fatality from pursuits over the last three years. On Sept. 30, 2014, a sheriff ’s deputy engaged in a threeminute pursuit with a vehicle wanted in connection with a shoplifting incident earlier in the day in Covington. The chase reportedly reached speeds up to 80 or 90 mph before the suspect vehicle crashed into a pickup truck on the 32800 block of Southeast Auburn Black Diamond Road. The suspect was killed in the crash, and three others were injured — including the pickup truck driver who sustained a broken leg. Even more recently, on the night of Jan. 16, a SeaTac deputy chased an allegedly stolen vehicle for ap[ more CHASE page 8 ]