“As soon as the officer came to the vehicle, he asked me to stick out my tongue,” said Simmons to Q13 Fox.
31-year-old Mike Simmons, who has no criminal record, said he was put in jail Tuesday for 13 hours and is now in debt $5,000 for fee’s including lawyers and towing due to the incident. He has also been told he can not drive while out on bail.
Simmons said that the officer told him that the green film on his tongue was a sign that he was using marijuana. Simmons said he had used marijuana three days prior, but was completely sober during the incident, while on his lunch break.
Despite nothing being found in Simmons car, the police claimed the tongue was probable cause. Simmons denied the police’s request for a blood sample stating that he wanted a lawyer present for the blood draw. Under Washington state’s newly established marijuana legalization, the law dictates that a driver can’t have more than 5 nanograms of THC in their blood.
“I just feel like the system they have is unfair,” said Simmons.
Washington state criminal defense lawyer Steve Graham, who has dealt with such claims before said, “we find no case stating that recent marijuana usage leads to a green tongue. The only case we could find that remotely supports such a proposition is State v. Baity, 140 Wn.2d 1, 991 P.2d 1151 (2000), wherein the opinion’s fact section mentions that the defendant, who had admitted to recent marijuana usage, also had a green tongue. Beyond this observation, however, the court never analyzes whether the green tongue and the recent marijuana usage are linked.”
Simmons says he may also sue the Kent Police Department.
Just last year Washington’s newly-elected Governor Jay Inslee met with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to discuss Washington’s new marijuana legalization policies, including the controversial DUI provision.
At this time it appears the federal government may attempt to stop Washington and Colorado from moving foward based on comment’s made by Gil Kerlikowske, President Obama’s Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
See more here at The Examiner and check out Mikael’s other articles.
America is now the Graveyard of the Once free, if the local fuzz has nothing better to be doing on the tax slaves’ dime than engage in phenomenally stupid shit like this they should have their funding cut off at the neck. America leads the entire world in coprophagous mongoloid stupidity and so called “law’ enforcement is right on the cutting edge of it.