Rantz: King County will sneak ‘harm reduction’ supplies into Crisis Care Centers levy to enable addicts

The King County Crisis Care Centers Levy is meant, in part, to help tackle the region’s rampant drug addiction crisis. But there’s a detail hidden in the 141-page plan. It reveals the county will almost certainly lean into the same failed policy of handing out “harm reduction” tools to addicts. Those tools include fentanyl pipes and clean needles. It’s almost certainly why the county won’t commit to keeping it out.

Well-intentioned voters gave the green light to a $1.25 billion tax in 2023 to fund Crisis Care Centers. The plan is meant to address addiction and drug use. It does this by expanding access to specialized crisis care facilities and post-crisis stabilization services. The strategy includes integrating substance use treatment services within crisis care centers, offering medication for opioid use disorder, withdrawal management, and substance use counseling. The plan also hopes to reduce fatal opioid overdoses through early crisis response investments. These comprehensive measures are designed to address the escalating — and historic — rates of overdose deaths in King County thanks to Democrats who previously legalized drug use.

There’s a lot to like in the plan. But there’s a glaring problem: It continues to invest in a failed “harm reduction” policy that provides drug addicts with tools that enable their addiction. It’s the very policy that led to the mess the county finds itself in.

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What are progressive King County leaders hiding in the Crisis Care Centers Levy?

Page 92 of the plan reveals that taxpayer dollars “will fund activities that aim to reduce fatal opioid overdoses” and expand access to “relevant public health supplies through vending machines and other community-based distribution mechanisms.” Given the context of page 92, all but the opioid-reversing drug Naloxone is intentionally undefined.

What exactly are the “relevant public health supplies” and “other resources” here? It took over a week of back-and-forth emails to finally get an answer, but it wasn’t very specific.

A spokesperson confirmed that “no ‘other resources’ have been specifically defined, determined or allocated — just the naloxone and fentanyl testing strips. The language from the plan is as specific as it gets right now.” When specifically asked if the county is considering fentanyl pipes or clean needles, which are already taxpayer-subsidized in the area, the response was, “No, not at this time.” That’s a convenient — and worrying — reply.

Crisis Care Centers designed with undefined spending in mind

Officials rarely want you to know that the very strategy that kept drugs flowing through the veins of addicts — leading to their inevitable death — is getting a portion of your taxpayer dollars. It’s why the entire strategy hides behind a clinical title, “harm reduction.” Many are finally waking up and realizing the problems with “harm reduction.”

But it’s undoubtedly easier for the county to keep our focus on Naloxone, to avoid pushback. It’s considerably less controversial. They hope we don’t ask them to define “relevant public health supplies.” But it’s our duty to ask them, particularly since we’re handing over a massive budget for something we should want: Treatment for addicts that works.

This entire Crisis Care Centers funding process was set up so that they would have carte blanche to spend money on whatever they deem necessary. Normally, it’s understandable that voters decide funding for a plan that is not 100% defined. Few people would read those details, including media members. But King County officials and bureaucrats often use their ideology to determine a public health approach. They haven’t earned our trust with the Crisis Care Centers funding.

Seattle and King County residents are smart enough to fall for the harm-reduction approach

What used to sound like an innovative and compassionate approach to addiction has been outed as a catastrophic addict-killer. Who knew giving drug addicts fentanyl pipes would lead to their overdose deaths? Well, actually, almost everyone. But a small group of radicals that run the county refuse to apply reason and logic to their strategy, instead vowing to impose policies as far to the left as possible.

But the public has clearly communicated that handing out needles and pipes is not acceptable. It’s why they booted fringe, harm reduction advocates from the Seattle City Council and have consistently told pollsters they support police intervention against open-air drug use. They wouldn’t want the police involved if they approved of the county handing out the tools the addicts are using in public.

Harm reduction is like putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. By making it easier for addicts to continue their destructive behavior, the county is merely perpetuating the cycle of addiction, rather than breaking it. The levy’s harm reduction approach sends a clear message: it’s okay to stay addicted, we’ll just keep reviving you when you overdose. This isn’t compassion; it’s a dangerous, taxpayer-funded exercise in futility. And it runs counter to the very purpose of the levy. If taxpayers put enough pressure on the county, while committing to focus on how the money is spent, we might be able to keep the funding where it should be.

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