Fight to ban safe injection sites in King County is still alive

Initiative 27, a measure to ban safe injection sites in King County, still has a shot at getting on the ballot.

Last year, a King County Superior Court Judge ruled that I-27 was invalid and couldn’t appear on the February ballot. Joshua Freed is a Bothell City Council member and the chairman of Safe King County, he appealed this decision.

“There’s this move from, really, just an issue on heroin injection sites, which of course is an illegal activity that the King County government and the city of Seattle want to push forward,” Freed said, “they’ve pushed beyond that to a violation of our own constitutional rights to participate in an election process.”

This week, the Washington state Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

Judge Veronica Alicea-Galvan originally ruled against Freed on the grounds that his initiative “extends beyond the scope of the local initiative power.” Freed is convinced it’ll be a different story at the state Supreme Court level.

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“We’re confident and hopeful that they’ll support our constitutional rights,” Freed told KTTH Radio’s Jason Rantz. “Multiple times throughout Washington state history issues such as ours have been supported by the voters or voted down by the voters, but we’ve always had that right to the initiative process.”

Multiple cities within King County already passed measures to prevent the King County Department of Health from placing a safe injection site in their city. Originally two were proposed, one in Seattle, another elsewhere in the county. Freed wants to end the consideration entirely.

“By legalizing heroin injection sites and the use of heroin, you’re going to have a very negative impact on our community,” Freed said. “Whether it’s in Seattle, or anywhere across King County, legalizing heroin use is not good.”

The state Supreme Court has yet to announce a hearing date.

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