OLYMPIA — More than 100 new laws will take effect in Washington this month, including changes to drug-possession laws, protections for transgender minors and the declaration of a state dinosaur.
Here are a few to look out for.
Drug possession
Starting July 1, a new drug law increases penalties for possession and public use in Washington.
Drug possession and public use are now gross misdemeanors, thanks to a bill passed during a special session of the Legislature in April.
Under the new law, a person’s first two offenses will carry penalties of up to 180 days in jail. This is lower than the normal maximum sentence for gross misdemeanors, which is 364 days behind bars.
In 2021, the state Supreme Court struck down the long-standing law that made drug possession a felony. The Legislature that year passed a temporary law expiring Saturday that made possession a misdemeanor but required people to be referred to treatment for their first two offenses.
Drug possession and public use would have become legal on Saturday if the Legislature had not passed a new law before the existing one expired.
Protection for transgender minors
Starting July 23, a new law says parents of a child seeking gender-affirming treatment or reproductive health will no longer need to be notified if the child is staying in a shelter. The homeless shelter will instead be required to notify the state Department of Children, Youth and Families that the child is in a shelter.
The shelter also will be required to perform a monthly check-in with the state as long as the child is staying there.
Under current law, parents or guardians are notified in most cases if a homeless or runaway child stays at a shelter for more than three days.
Anti-hazing bill: ‘Sam’s Law’
A new law that increases the legal penalty for hazing will take effect this month.
Sam Martinez was set to graduate this May along with the rest of the Washington State University class of 2023. He died in 2019 from alcohol poisoning after being hazed as a pledge in his fraternity. His parents, Jolayne Houtz and Hector Martinez, proposed the Legislature pass anti-hazing laws in honor of their son.
The new law increases the legal penalties for people convicted of hazing. The crime used to be classified as a misdemeanor, but it will now be considered a gross misdemeanor starting July 23. Gross misdemeanors carry a maximum jail sentence of 364 days and a fine of up to $5,000. If hazing causes substantial bodily injury or death, it is classified as a felony and carries a longer maximum sentence.
The new law, which takes effect July 23, also calls for hazing education and prevention training for students and staff at Washington universities.
Denser housing
A new law may soon bring more duplexes and fourplexes to cities across Washington.
Beginning July 23, the “middle housing” law will require cities with populations between 25,000 and 75,000 to allow duplexes on all lots. The law also requires cities to allow fourplexes to be constructed on all lots if at least one unit is considered affordable, and on all lots within a quarter mile of a major transit stop.
Cities with more than 75,000 people will be required to allow fourplexes on all lots, and residences with six units on lots within a quarter mile of a major transit stop.
Cities with fewer than 25,000 people that are located in an urban growth area with a total population of more than 275,000 will be required to allow duplexes on all lots.
Official state dinosaur: S. rex
There’s a new (official) dinosaur in town. Later this month, the Suciasaurus rex will earn the title of Washington’s official state dinosaur. Suciasaurus rex is the only dinosaur fossil ever discovered by paleontologists in Washington, though the creature itself likely lived in present-day California or Mexico. Scientists say tectonic shifts over millions of years pushed north the land where the bone was found.
A piece of Suciasaurus rex’s leg bone was found in 2012 on the shores of Sucia Island State Park in the San Juan Islands by scientists from the Burke Museum. The 80 million-year-old fossil is part of the left thigh bone of a theropod dinosaur, the group of carnivorous, two-legged dinosaurs that includes Cretaceous period celebrities like the Velociraptor and Tyrannosaurus rex.
It took five years for the Legislature to approve the official dinosaur.
