Snohomish County takes ‘preventative measure’ against injection sites

Update on Snohomish County safe injection site ban:

The Snohomish County Council approved a ban on safe injection sites in unincorporated parts of its region on Monday, Sept. 25.

The council is encouraging cities, such as Everett, to implement their own bans.  The council argues that safe injection sites for addicts only encourage drug use, and that treatment should be where governments put their energy.

The ban is a six-month moratorium barring any placement of safe injection sites. The council aims to use this time to codify a permanent ban.

Original story:

Snohomish County Councilmember Nate Nehring wants to make certain his community isn’t home to a safe injection site, so he’s proposing an emergency moratorium.

“What this is, is basically a six-month moratorium which says you can’t site any safe injection sites within unincorporated Snohomish County,” Nehring told 770 KTTH’s Jason Rantz. “That gives us the opportunity during those six months to put through a permanent ordinance.”

Health officials approved plans for two sites in King County earlier this year, but multiple municipalities within King County moved to ban sites in response.

There aren’t any proposals for sites in Snohomish County right now, but Nehring says he didn’t want county leaders to be caught off guard.

“It’s more of a preventative measure,” Nehring said. “So what we’ve done here in Snohomish County is introduce this legislation to try to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to us. We want to get out ahead of the game and make sure we’re not having these safe injection sites anywhere near Snohomish County.”

Proponents of safe injection sites argue they would save lives because medical professionals could monitor users to make sure they don’t die of an overdose. Nehring feels there are better uses of county funds.

“I think the issue with safe injection sites is it doesn’t do any treatment,” Nehring said. “It’s just continuing the addiction when you’re taking taxpayer dollars and using those dollars to fund facilities which enables people’s addiction and don’t do anything to try to treat those addictions.”

What would he rather spend the money on instead?

“If we’re going to be spending taxpayer dollars on the issue, I’d much rather see those dollars spent on treatment opportunities for people who genuinely want to turn their lives around,” Nehring said.

The 22-year-old councilmember is expecting the moratorium to pass sometime next week.

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