VANCOUVER — When state trooper Jason Gainer saw a motorist wearing no seat belt in Orchards on Thursday afternoon, he rolled down his window to give the man a verbal warning.
It was going to be a case of "click it" and no ticket, a kinder and gentler variation of the Washington State Patrol’s recent "Click It or Ticket" seat belt enforcement campaign.
But the trooper’s tolerant mood vanished as he watched the motorist pull out a glass pipe and take a big puff of marijuana, said Washington State Patrol Trooper Garvin March.
Instead of a warning, 34-year-old Robert Shull of Vancouver ended up with tickets for allegedly possessing marijuana and drug paraphernalia and failing to buckle up.
"He smoked himself out of a warning," March said.
The odd scenario began about 12:45 p.m. as Gainer was stopped for a red light at Northeast Gher Road and state Highway 500. He noticed that a motorist in a 1990 Chrysler New Yorker to his left wasn’t wearing his seat belt.
As Gainer prepared to warn the driver, he watched him take a hit of pot and then tilt his head back while holding the smoke in, Trooper March said.
"He was just sucking his lungs full," March said. "This is broad daylight at lunch hour at one of the busiest intersections in the county, and the trooper was in a fully marked patrol car."
The man allegedly exhaled quickly when he saw the trooper staring at him, but it was too late. Gainer waved for the man to pull over, and he did. In the Chrysler, officers said they found 6 grams of marijuana.
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