The city of Seattle and King County, Washington, are on pace to soar past 2022’s record high of 1,000 fatal drug overdoses, a number that has climbed every year since the county decriminalized drugs in 2018.
With more than 500 confirmed drug fatalities by mid-June, most involving the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, there’s no end in sight. That’s especially true since Seattle decided to legalize drugs yet again, essentially doubling down on policies that are devastating the city.
In embracing this approach, Seattle has become a poster child for how ideology gets in the way of sound approaches to the problems of illegal drug use and homelessness. But the policy failures aren’t scaring away other Democrat-run governments — quite the opposite. The drug legalization movement appears to be growing — along with the number of dead addicts.
How did this happen?
In 2021, the Washington State Supreme Court invalidated the state’s felony drug possession law, arguing that it’s unreasonable to assume someone caught with drugs knew they had them. It was a head-scratching decision delivered by a court that’s become increasingly and transparently partisan. The Democrat-controlled legislature then passed a temporary law to effectively legalize drugs statewide as it figured out what the state’s new approach to illicit drugs would be.
The answer was always obvious: change the law to say that knowledge of the possession of drugs is a felony. But the state legislature is controlled by a small group of vocal and far-left legislators who argue that the criminal justice system is racist and should not play a role in drug crimes.
“People don’t recover when we put them in cages,” state Rep. Lauren Davis said on the House floor.
‘Hands-off’ approach
Under the temporary plan, addicts could only be arrested after two contacts with police; they were offered the opportunity to get help instead. But with no mechanism to track the number of police encounters, drug-related arrests mostly stopped, impacting every part of the state as illicit substances continued to flow in. Seattle and King County were hit the hardest.
For a while, a bipartisan compromise bill to re-criminalize drugs seemed plausible this year. Possession would still not be a felony; instead, a gross misdemeanor. That was better than nothing. Law enforcement and prosecutors could leverage jail time to pressure addicts into getting the life-saving treatment they need.
But that any jail time was part of the plan was enough for the some Democratic lawmakers to scuttle the deal. The state legislative session ended without a bill, meaning that by July 1, the state would have no drug possession laws at all.
Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee called for a special session to rework the bill. But thankfully, mayors and city councils around the state did not wait. With urgency and bipartisanship that state lawmakers should have emulated, countless cities and counties made drug possession and use a gross misdemeanor on their own.
“We cannot stand idly by while individuals die of an overdose or watch drug-related property and violent crimes continue to impact our neighborhoods and businesses,” Kent mayor Dana Ralph argued.
Seattle was still not ready to impose legal sanctions on addicts. The current ideological makeup of the Seattle City Council is far left. With only two moderates, it seemed a Herculean task to convince the rest of the council to criminalize drugs.
“Our hands-off approach to people using illegal drugs in public has resulted in rampant street crime and a death toll rivaling that of COVID-19 in Seattle,” moderate city council member Sara Nelson said in a statement. “Complacency is no longer an option.”
But it turned out that complacency was, indeed, an option. Democratic council member Tammy Morales tweeted “hard pass” on any drug criminalization. Her colleagues soon followed.
Meanwhile, progressive Democrats at the state level finally reconciled their differences and passed a drug law that made possession a gross misdemeanor, forcing Seattle into a choice. The city’s municipal code needed an update to conform to the gross misdemeanor classification. As it stands, the King County prosecuting attorney’s office handles drug crimes, but the top prosecutor, Leesa Manion, said her office cannot handle the caseload. Plus, misdemeanors are supposed to go to the city attorney.
All carrot, no stick
Legal accountability for addicts is often described as “criminalizing addiction.” But the approach adopted by the city attorney isn’t merely about jailing addicts. It’s about leveraging jail to get people treatment, with legal consequences if they decline.
In research for my forthcoming book “What’s Killing America,” I noticed a trend in cities with the worst drug problems: their permissive policies were all carrot and no stick. It turns out, addicts don’t like carrots, and without a stick, they aren’t properly motivated. From Los Angeles and Portland to Philadelphia and New York, addicts — who are often homeless — know there are few, if any, legal consequences for drug use and thus may have little incentive to seek treatment.
After a dramatic council meeting, the Seattle City Council rejected the proposed ordinance 5-4, keeping drug cases with the prosecutor, and de facto legalizing drugs — again. The council sided with progressive activists despite polling that shows Seattle residents are finally acknowledging that the city’s permissive drug culture has gone too far. A recent survey by EMC Research showed 65% of residents believe the city is on the wrong track, and 77% agree that the city’s “hands-off approach” to drug use “is making it much harder for downtown to recover.”
Addicts need and deserve help; we all agree on this. But should we wait for them to ask for help, as progressives believe, or provide incentives through legal consequences?
Seattle employs a “harm reduction” strategy, handing out drug paraphernalia for addicts to continue to use, only in “safer” ways. A recent council meeting revealed the city is funding pipes for fentanyl use. The city is not alone.
New York City public health officials are installing vending machines for clean needles and Naloxone, a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose. Volunteers in Philadelphia pass out smoking kits, while Los Angeles County distributes crack pipes. If a Chicago Democrat gets his way, the city will see “safe consumption sites,” locations where addicts are supervised by medical professionals while they get high.
Perhaps Seattle doesn’t want to be seen as a left-wing city going “backward” on drug policy; it might lose its progressive bona fides. Mayor Bruce Harrell announced he’d convene a 24-member work group to hash out solutions to the drug crisis. He also promised an ordinance similar to what just failed, but left out the details. Whatever it ends up looking like, if the city continues to follow the trend, that “record high” number of fatal overdoses will continue to get higher every year.
Jason Rantz is author of the forthcoming book, “What’s Killing America: Inside the Radical Left’s Tragic Destruction of Our Cities,” and a Seattle-based talk show host on KTTH Radio. He’s a frequent guest on Fox News, including “The Faulkner Focus,” “Fox News at Night,” and “Varney and Company.” On Twitter, he’s @JasonRantz.