Seattle Hid its Addiction Crisis for the World Cup
Seattle cleaned up nice for the World Cup. Downtown, Pioneer Square, and the stadium district looked the way the brochures always promised. The tournament ended. The tourists left. The people who used to be on those corners didn't stop using fentanyl, didn't stop struggling with mental illness, and permanent supportive housing didn't suddenly start working. They got moved.
Ginny Burton knows the way back. She spent nearly 30 years in addiction, jail, and prison, and walked out of it a University of Washington graduate. Now she's walking 307 miles across Washington to fund a program that treats addiction inside state prisons — with a 98% success rate and a $4,500 cost per person, compared to the more than $63,000 the public spends on the alternative. Charlie Harger on the honest conversation Seattle keeps avoiding.
Listen to Seattle's Morning News w/ Charlie Harger and Manda Factor every weekday at 5am on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM or go to MyNorthwest.com to learn more!
