Thank you for your email regarding your concerns over recent meetings held by the ACLU with local law enforcement regarding the Washington State Medical Marijuana Statute. As the representative who attended the meetings on behalf of my office, the King County Prosecutor's Office, I can tell you that our meetings in no way violated the Open Public Meetings Act set out in RCW 42.30.030. Our meetings were not violative of the Open Public Meetings Act because those of us who work in government who attended the meetings did not constitute a "governing body" of a public agency as defined in RCW 42.30.010. Furthermore, the ACLU is a private organization. The Open Public Meetings Act does not apply to private entities.

Our purpose in meeting, at least from my personal perspective, was to simply discuss the silence in RCW 69.51A regarding how to produce a safe and legal supply of medical marijuana. We had discussions but reached no agreement on what "official policy" is in King County. The simple fact is that it is the police and prosecutors' job to interpret the statute and apply their own law enforcement and prosecutorial discretion as they judge fit, subject to the citizens we serve. We will continue to exercise what discretion the law gives us in this area of the law but we are never opposed to sitting down with citizens whether they be the ACLU or some other advocacy organization and discussing the issues. As public servants that is just as much our job as any other responsibility we have.
Sincerely,

Ian Goodhew
Deputy Chief of Staff
King County Prosecutor's Office