Do King County voters have the power to stop injection sites?

Public health experts and families of people who have died of drug overdoses are pushing for a plan to set up safe injection sites. Supporters argue drug users are like anyone else on medication; no one gets upset when people take their daily dose of insulin, so why should drug users be treated differently?

There’s an initiative that seeks to permanently ban the sites from King County, and a lawsuit attempting to block a vote on it.

Now people are wondering if you can sue to stop an initiative that hasn’t been voted on yet?

Of course, you can sue over anything, former state Attorney General Rob McKenna says. Lawsuits attempting to block measures from the ballot have become more common over the past decade or so. Those attempting to block state initiatives have been largely unsuccessful. But lawsuits trying to block local initiatives and referenda have been successful, at times.

If the issue goes to court, there’s one former case out of Washington state that could be used in the argument, McKenna says. That case involved activists suing Port Angeles in an attempt to remove fluoride from the water. But the state Supreme Court held that the authority to make decisions about drinking water fell within the local government’s authority, McKenna explained. Which means in order to change the law, voters would have to vote someone else into office.

The decision then, according to McKenna, could come down to a council. They may, however, listen to what the voters have to say before making that decision.

Listen to the entire discussion here.