Urquhart: Safe injection sites in Seattle will not be a ‘get-out-of-jail’ card

As Seattle considers funding safe injection sites for heroin users, many questions have arisen as to what the laws would be around them.

Related: Seattle looks to Vancouver for advice on heroin injection sites

KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson asked King County Sheriff John Urquhart if he would arrest people using the safe injection sites with illegal drugs.

“No. Absolutely not,” Urquhart said. “If the city, and, therefore, the citizens of Seattle, presumably are in favor of this … why would I go against that decision and arrest people?”

Urquhart said that he has deputies within the borders of Seattle. They would be instructed not to arrest patrons using safe injection sites where medical professionals would monitor the drug use of addicts while they get their dose.

But how far does that leniency go? What if, for example, a person was in Maple Valley and found in possession of heroin but they told a deputy they were on their way to use it at a Seattle safe injection site?

“My direction to my deputies would be to arrest them and take them to jail if you don’t have a better place to take them,” Urquhart said. “It’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

So, basically, it’s only the sites that would be left alone.

Urquhart said that he personally has not decided if safe injection sites, as they have been used in Vancouver BC for years, are a good idea. He said he is open to them, but ultimately would follow the lead of the people and their representatives.

“What I believe these safe injection sites do is that they prevent the spread of AIDS, hepatitis C and B, which is rampant, and apparently they are successful up in Vancouver if you believe the studies done up there,” he said.

“I’m open to them, I’ll be frank about that, but I have not made a decision one way or the other,” Urquhart said.