SEATTLE — Federal authorities have charged a man with dealing marijuana near a Seattle high school, after state prosecutors said an inadvertent legal change made it difficult for them to do so.
Washington’s Initiative 502 legalized the recreational use of pot by adults over 21 last year, but it also changed the definition of marijuana under state law in a way that made it hard to prosecute any marijuana offense.
That problem has since been fixed by the Legislature, but King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said the fix came too late for him to prosecute Alejandro Antonio Castillo.
Instead, federal authorities arrested the 51-year-old Monday and charged him with conspiracy to distribute marijuana, distribution of marijuana, and marijuana possession. Prosecutors said he came to their attention in March after a middle school parent reported that children were buying weed from Castillo’s home a block from Ballard High School.
Castillo was due to appear in federal court Monday afternoon.
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