@1: We have an entire state sponsored industry called "The Prosecutors Office" that make their living " degrading already marginalized segments of society."

They will always find some new marginalized group to exploit while simultaneously bragging that they no longer burn witches at the stake.......I mean prosecute drug convictions.

@4: The fact that we have been criminalizing rotating lifestyle crimes (alcohol, gambling, drugs and sex work) for a century, but always managed to land on the same marginalized groups for incarceration and exploration points to the chickens among law enforcement coming fist.

That and there's this:

Nixon Adviser Admits War on Drugs Was Designed to Criminalize Black People
https://eji.org/news/nixon-war-on-drugs-designed-to-criminalize-black-people/

In a 1994 interview, Mr. Ehrlichman said, “You want to know what this was really all about?” He went on:

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and Black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

"Before this year, if you exposed someone to HIV in the state of Washington—even unknowingly, and even if you used protection—you could be sent to jail for the rest of your life, forced to pay $50,000 in fines, and register as a sex offender. Exposure wasn’t defined in the law, so it could be interpreted to apply to a broad range of activities... "

whatabout trumpf and his
Super-Spreader Nuremberg rallies?

why we gotta Bend the Rules for him
and his willfully-infliciting psycophants?

@5 --- "We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities.

We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news.

Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

and they Sold it as a Morality Play
and so Willingly the Citizenry Ate It Up...
they play us for Fools and we cannot
wait to prove them right.

"Before this year, if you exposed someone to HIV in the state of Washington—even unknowingly, and even if you used protection—you could be sent to jail for the rest of your life, forced to pay $50,000 in fines, and register as a sex offender."

This is a lie. The old statute required someone to have the intent to inflict great bodily harm -- in other words, they had to know they had HIV, and intend to commit great bodily harm by infecting someone -- to be charged with assault. Unknowing transmission does not equate to intending to inflict great bodily harm.

Assuming readers are stupid should be the province of OWN or Newsmax or any of the long list of garbage conservative "news" outlets. It's unfortunate that The Stranger is doing the same thing in this article.

yeah, @Farty
and there is no
Fascist Party here is there
(other than Republicanutsees)
'cause Corporate Rule truly Rocks don't it.
duh

your Shackles are showing.

"to convict someone, prosecutors must prove that the defendant intended to transmit HIV."

I don't know about anyone else here, but I DO consider attempting to transmit a serious disease to be a criminal act, just like intentionally doing anything else that harms someone. Intending to transmit measles, smallpox, or COVID19 should also be a crime.

There is no question that the previous law went too far, but what on earth is wrong with making intentionally trying to hurt someone illegal? Accidentally doing so, or doing it unknowingly is different, but intent matters. The law as it now stands is only going to apply to a small number of people who really do mean harm to others.

Good thread to remind everyone on that our current incoming president, Joe Biden essentially ruined the house music scene in the US with the RAVE Act(that he cosponsored) which criminalizes raves like crack houses. DJs, promoters said im not going to jail for a life sentence for promoting a rave and left for europe en masse. Seriously, look up whisky dick Joe's RAVE Act. He must fucking hate gays like Nixon hated blacks to come up with a piece of legislation like that.

biden'll move only in relation to how Hard he's pushed and then there's ethics-Free senator McTurtles...

perhaps it's Time for the President of the Senate to tell the ole Moscow Mule to take a Fucking hike. or a swim. mind his snapper...