SEQUIM — Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict wants to cut through the fog of medical marijuana legislation and feels the Border Patrol has too large a presence on the North Olympic Peninsula.
In a frank and wide-ranging town hall forum, Benedict described the latest state medical marijuana bill, which Gov. Chris Gregoire partially vetoed last month, as an “enforcement nightmare.”
“It’s a schizophrenia that I see in this whole thing,” Benedict said Wednesday night.
“Somebody needs to make up their mind and tell us dumb cops what to do. I’m serious. We want a bright line,” he said.
“Just about everything else we deal with is solid — homicide, property crimes. You pretty well know here’s the law and here’s what you have to do.”
The event was sponsored by the Clallam County Democratic Party and the Clallam Democratic Club, a social and educational organization for Democrats.
The second-term sheriff answered questions from an audience of about 20 at Sequim’s Pioneer Park on topics that ranged from drugs to the expansion of the Border Patrol headquarters in Port Angeles, which houses agents who cover both Clallam and Jefferson counties.
Work is expected to begin this month on expanded headquarters for the North Olympic Peninsula’s new Border Patrol headquarters at 110 Penn St. in Port Angeles.
In 2006, four agents worked in the Port Angeles headquarters, which covers both Clallam and Jefferson counties. That number had increased to 24 by April 2009. By August, the staff was 25.
“I question the need for such a large Border Patrol presence,” Benedict said.
“And the reason I question it is I know their activity. I think they made less than 20 arrests last year.”
Benedict acknowledged the need for border security in a border county. But, he said, much of that work could be handled by the Coast Guard on the open water.
“I feel a little sorry for the Border Patrol because it is a very lonely, boring job,” Benedict said.
“They just don’t have much to do.
“Believe me, I have no animus toward individual Border Patrol agents,” Benedict said.
“I think that they’re doing an outstanding job. They’re very professional.
“But I would have hoped that there would have been a needs assessment done in terms of why did we get to the point we did.”
Benedict said his deputies don’t get involved if the immigration status of a witness or victim is questionable.
Inmates are another matter.
“If I arrest someone and put them in my jail, their immigration status is going to be ascertained, as well as their identity,” Benedict said.
“And if they’re in the country illegally, at some point in the process, they are going to get turned over to the Border Patrol.”
From a philosophical standpoint, Benedict said he can “definitely see where [the Border Patrol] presence could be overpowering.”
Clallam County is one of nine in the state in which the elected sheriff is nonpartisan.
“I like it that way,” Benedict said.
“I have found it extremely difficult to view law enforcement though a partisan lens.”
Much of the 90-minute town hall focused on drugs and drug law enforcement, including those for marijuana.
“I really wish the marijuana laws would get straightened out,” Benedict said.
“They just made it worse with the last bill that came through. There’s so much on either side of the marijuana law.
“We’re caught in the middle, and I don’t want to be there. But the fact is, if it’s against the law, I have a duty to enforce it.”
Benedict said the biggest drug problem in Clallam County is alcohol.
“It always is,” he said.
“No. 2 right now is abuse of prescription narcotics, the Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin.
“Right now, in our state, the prescription-drug abuse is killing more people than traffic accidents.”
Last year, the sheriff deputized local pharmacists to make it easier for people to return their unwanted or unused prescription pills, narcotic or not.
He ran into a roadblock when the Drug Enforcement Agency said a pharmacy cannot take back narcotic pills. Benedict said he is hopeful that pending legislation will make it possible to return pills to a secured drop-box at a pharmacy.
Unwanted pills, including controlled substances, can be returned to the Sheriff’s Office lobby during regular business hours.
“The source of this scourge of the prescription narcotics is Grandma and Grandpa’s medicine cabinet and Mom and Dad’s medicine cabinet and the neighbor’s medicine cabinet,” Benedict said.
“It’s not like they’re being smuggled in from another country.
“These drugs are very potent, and they’re very powerful.
“When I was a kid, if you got your tooth pulled, you got a couple Tylenol. Now, you get 20 or 30 of these pills.”
Benedict described a “drug nexus” where a person commits a crime while under the influence of drugs. Very few people are in jail for simple drug possession, he said.
When asked about the notion of decriminalizing drugs, Benedict said: “It would sure make my job easier.”
Benedict said he is impressed with the Canadian model of law enforcement, in part because they are “a little less heavy-handed than we are.”
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t have any fun at all coming through our own Customs,” Benedict said.
“It’s like everyone’s treated like a terrorist. I think we could do a lot more to work with the Canadians.”
Benedict was elected in 2006 and ran unopposed last year. The former Navy fighter pilot oversees a staff of 90, a $10 million budget and a 126-capacity jail.
The Sheriff’s Office handles about 20,000 calls per year and makes about 4,000 arrests.
Since taking office, Benedict has formed a citizens advisory committee, and the department has earned accreditation.
“I’m very, very proud of that,” he said.
“I’m very proud of the performance and professionalism of our deputies.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
