The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
The failure of state lawmakers to do anything about the surging drug crisis is one of the worst policy face-plants I’ve seen in local politics going back 30 years.
Rarely is the gap so wide between the high stakes of an issue — hundreds of state residents now dying monthly of overdoses — and the low results. Which is that the Legislature adjourned for the year Sunday after deciding to do nothing about it.
“Decided” is the wrong word, because really what happened was the opposite of decision-making. Democrats who control the state House, Senate and the governor’s office just couldn’t make up their minds how to approach the drug issue. So they punted.
Said state House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, after the House she runs had torpedoed a compromise bill her own party had crafted: “I’m flummoxed, I’m flummoxed.”
Imagine how state residents feel.
The political system had a year to figure out how hard or soft to go on drugs, along with what treatment plans to put in place. The part about criminal sanctions is tricky and controversial. The part about treatment is not.
Both the Senate and House passed bills that, in the big picture, weren’t wildly different. The Senate said drug possession would be a gross misdemeanor, the House wanted it to be a misdemeanor. Both penalties are down from the previous felony level, which was thrown out by the state Supreme Court in 2021.
But both bills spent most of their focus and money on the treatment side of this issue anyway — on trying to divert drug users away from jail, and creating treatment programs to get them some substance abuse help.
Led by Seattle’s delegation, which for the most part wants to decriminalize hard drugs completely, 25 percent of House Democrats voted no on their own party’s compromise bill. And so it failed.
There are two things most galling about this — and neither has to do with the debate about whether drugs should be a crime.
The first is that drug treatment, the part everybody supposedly agrees on and is so desperately needed? A ton of that got thrown out with the rest of the bill.
To give a sense of the urgent stakes: In the time after the state House passed its bill on April 11 until the close of the session April 23, 55 more people died of overdoses in King County alone.
Why not at least pass the treatment parts? They waited to vote on the bill until the final moments of the session, then predictably ran out of time for any fixes. (That they then stood and applauded themselves for adjourning was a real chef’s kiss to the public.)
The other head-shaking thing, which doesn’t bode well going ahead, is that Democrats blamed Republicans for what was their own lack of leadership.
“Their failure to provide any votes for this bill is going to result in methamphetamines, fentanyl and heroin … possession of those drugs being legalized across the state of Washington,” Jinkins said of Republicans.
Sorry, but no. Democrats have an 18-seat majority in the state House, a nine-seat majority in the state Senate, and the governorship. You can’t point at the group that’s on life support and say “they made us fail.”
Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, told me: “I don’t know that I’ve seen a party put a bill on the bar to be voted on, and then have it lose and have no plan for what to do after that. I think our party’s main plan was to blame the Republicans and see if that sticks.”
Just embarrassing. This wasn’t some show vote. It was the most consequential policy debate of the year.
I feel bad now for the city and town mayors, who are struggling to get a grip on this scourge. And for the overwhelmed front-line paramedics and substance abuse counselors, who will stay overwhelmed. But mostly for the people out there in the throes of addiction, and even more so their families, who are desperately looking for some answers, for any bit of relief or help their government might provide.
You all deserve much better than this.
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