Claudia Balducci: Stop saying I support injection sites

As more and more city councils vote against safe injection sites, one King County council member wants to make it clear she understands the concern.

REPORT: Seattle poised to spend $2 million on injection site

“I’ve seen this reporting that I support safe injection sites, but I haven’t actually taken a position on whether, or where, they should be,” King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci told 770 KTTH’s Jason Rantz.

Back in January, the King County Heroin and Prescription Opiate Addiction Task Force recommended the county open two safe injection sites in an attempt to limit overdose deaths — one in Seattle and another elsewhere. Balducci said she’s sympathetic to municipalities that want to opt out of contention.

“I do support local control,” Balducci said. “I was on the city council in Bellevue for a long time. I believe that local government is the closest to the people and, therefore, understands the needs of the community the best.”

Certainly, there are plenty of overdose deaths concentrated in Seattle, but other cities have also suffered losses in the hundreds as well. Balducci acknowledges the problem is widespread, but she doesn’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all solution.

“We’re seeing people die all over the place, but how the problem manifests is different in different locations,” Balducci said. “The recommendation for safe consumption sites was made in the specific context of a hot spot, that’s the word that the task force used.”

Balducci explains she understands how safe consumption sites could appeal to a community like Seattle, where the problem is on the street and in resident’s faces. In the suburbs, though, the problem is more understated.

“In Bellevue, it’s a very quiet, private epidemic,” Balducci said. “It requires a different intervention. We don’t want to pull people out onto the streets, we want to get to them and offer them treatment, but that’s a different approach.”

There was an initiative to ban safe injection sites on the ballot, but a judge ruled the initiative violated the power of the King County Board of Health.

Balducci said she was fine with voters weighing in on this issue.

“I have more faith in the voters than to say they couldn’t figure out a topic like this, “Balducci said. “I am fine with this issue going to the ballot.”

Ultimately, Balducci just wants communities to figure out what is best for them.

“I support making sure that cities have the tools to address these problems, “she said. “That means that the county doesn’t tell them what they have to do, but neither do we tell them what they can’t do.”

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