Are heroin injection sites a state’s rights issue?

The Washington state Supreme Court recently heard the case to see if voters should have the final say on whether or not to allow heroin injection sites in King County neighborhoods. At the Federal level, the Trump administration said that if any of these sites go ahead, they will take actions against those cities which house them.

RELATED: Supreme Court considers initiative controversy around safe injection sites

Is this a state’s rights issue or the should the federal government be intervening?

“First of all, it’s about human rights,” said former state Republican Party chair Susan Hutchison, who is challenging Senator Maria Cantwell in the upcoming November election. “And the government should never ever be involved in helping addicts shoot up. If you take a poll in this state, overwhelmingly the people are against such injection sites.”

I-27 would give voters the ability to decide on whether to open or ban safe injection sites in the county. Last year, the group Safe King County gathered nearly 75,000 signatures to put I-27 on the ballot. The non-profit Protect Public Health and the City of Seattle sued to block the initiative.

A King County judge agreed and blocked it under the argument that went beyond the scope of the initiative process. But I-27 organizer Joshua Freed appealed to the state Supreme Court in a hearing held Tuesday.

Heroin injections sites would fail here, says Hutchison

“They failed in British Columbia, and they would fail here,” Hutchison said. “What they do is they attract drug pushers to gather around these injection sites. It is a deterioration of our society the likes of which nobody can stand.”

A former Emmy-winning news producer, Hutchison came in second behind Dow Constantine in the 2009 election for King County Executive, and later served as state Republican Party chair from 2013 until a few months ago. At the time, her departure was seen as a sign that she might be appointed to a position in Trump’s administration.

For Hutchison, states and cities should not be exempt from federal laws on safe injection sites.

“When it comes to the federal government getting involved, it’s a matter of following the law. We are a nation of law and order, we should be a state of law order. And we should be cities of law and order,” she said.

“So if there are laws on the books that allow the feds to move in on this, then they need to be enforced. If the laws need to be changed, then so be it.”

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