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Drug overdose deaths are skyrocketing in the Northwest, causing woke Washingtonians to rethink their soft stance on punishing drug dealers and abusers, who are legally allowed to shoot up on the streets of Seattle.
Washington state now has the fastest-rising drug overdose rate of any state, soaring to 21.9% over the last 12-month period ending Jan. 31, when 2,799 overdoses were reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study also says those numbers are underreported and the state predicts the true figure to be 2,850 deaths, which would be a 24% increase in one year.
The next closest state is Maine, which reported 716 overdose deaths, an increase of just under 18% year-on-year.
Even those who have been personally affected by the fentanyl crisis gripping Washington are shocked by the numbers, but quickly acknowledge cracks in the system.
“The 12-Step Plan doesn’t work for someone like my son who had mental health issues,” said Bellingham, Wash., resident Laurie Satushek, who lost her 29-year old son, Mick, to a fentanyl overdose in April.
“Tough love doesn’t work with people who are mentally ill like my son. They could care less if you arrest them for a misdemeanor or whether it’s a felony.
“All that is doing is costing taxpayers money to have people in jail. There has to be reinforcement and constant supervision, because without that, none of it will work. It’s just a big waste because they will die without rules.”
While lawmakers finally passed a drug reform policy that makes drug use and possession a gross misdemeanor in the state, some cities like Seattle have languished back and forth.
The Seattle City Council voted two weeks ago to ultimately reject the state’s public drug use legislation that would’ve allowed the city to prosecute people who are using drugs in public.
However, the tide seems to have turned as fed-up Seattle residents say they would now support arresting people who openly use drugs in public, according to the Seattle Times.
Of the 500 Seattle residents who were polled by Suffolk University, nearly 60% said they support arrests for drug possession and drug use.
“This is completely in line with what I’ve been hearing from my constituents ever since I got into office,” said Seattle council member Sara Nelson. She added parents and business owners are constantly voicing their concerns about the rampant drug use throughout the city.
However, 55% of people polled said they still support lesser charges compared to what was passed by the state legislature.
Other smaller cities, including Bellingham — known as the “most hippie” town in the state — have taken a tougher stance. The city council of the liberal town of 90,000 residents voted in April to make it a crime to “inject, ingest or inhale” drugs in public.
The city council’s decision to get tougher on drugs was spurred in part by the death of a 5-year-old girl — which led to the arrest of her parents and another person, who have all since been charged with murder — and two teen deaths.
In July 2022, two men were caught smuggling 91,000 fentanyl pills into Bellingham by using potato chip containers and boxes.
Homeland Security Investigations Pacific Northwest, assisted by the Whatcom County sheriff, arrested Alejandro Macias-Velazquez and Juan E. Hernandez-Hernandez after it was discovered the men had connections to a criminal organization that helped the duo import the illegal drugs.
Agents found 10 kilograms of fentanyl stuffed inside cardboard boxes and empty Lay’s Stax potato chip containers that were delivered to Hernandez-Hernandez in Bellingham.
Authorities arrested Macias-Velazquez as he arrived to deliver the duffel bag full of fentanyl pills.
The drug arrests and overdoses have shaken Bellingham so much that city leaders and drug prevention experts have planned a two-day summit on June 27 and 28 to discuss the growing problem in their small town.
Laurie Satushek, a realtor in Bellingham, said she is one of the panelists participating in the symposium.
Satushek said she hopes to have a frank discussion about how the system failed her son and others like him who struggled with mental health and drug addiction.
Mick had struggled with schizophrenia for more than a decade and had become homeless. Even when his family rallied to get him out of state treatment, Mick couldn’t escape his drug addiction.
Satushek said it was agonizing to see her son ignored in the ER only to be released without support a few days later. Since her son was an adult, Satushek said, she often was not provided important medical information or where he was released.
She would later find her son living in the streets and hopped up on drugs.
Mick was found dead on April 5 after he overdosed at the town’s Arne Hanna Aquatic Center. Coroners confirmed he died of an overdose of meth and fentanyl, Satushek said.
“This is exploding and clearly we need to start over and re-evaluate what we are doing,” Satushek told The Post.
“Even as much money and education my husband and I have, and as much support we tried to give Mick, it just wasn’t enough.
“My son had mental health issues and was a drug addict, and there was no way he could’ve survived because of the lack of support and services. He was really doomed to die.”
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