Dori’s surprising take on a Seattle safe heroin-injection program

Seattle health officials have tried multiple tactics to add safety measures to the rampant heroin abuse around the city, but nothing compared to a proposal in Ithaca, New York. Not yet, at least.

KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson says he would be surprised if the people of Seattle don’t take notice of Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick’s proposal that the city host the first supervised injection facility where heroin users could inject the drug under the care of a nurse without getting arrested by police.

“I guarantee you that now that a city has proposed this, people in Seattle will consider the idea,” Monson said.

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In fact, Seattle has considered the safe injection idea for some time now. KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz reported on the issue in November, and more recently, Canadian officials were invited to discuss their safe injection parograms with Seattle officials.

And while Dori has mocked Seattle officials’ proposals to address the homeless crisis and King County’s needle exchange program, he says he feels for anyone whose lives are taken over by drugs or alcohol and society should provide a social safety net for them.

“This may shock a lot of people; I’m open to that idea,” Dori said. “I don’t think anybody because of their addiction, their illness, should pay with their life. And the idea of a place where addicts, who are going to shoot up anyway could go and safely do it, I’m open to the idea.”

Dori noted that he doesn’t necessarily endorse the idea, either, but would not reject it out of hand. Dori had liability questions, such as what happens when somebody walks out of the city-supervised facility into traffic or commits a crime while high.

Producer Jake Skorheim does not think creating an alternate location was going to be a realistic solution for people needing drugs, noting that most heroin users tend to need their fix pretty immediately.

“What’s the likelihood of those people driving across town or taking the bus to come to some extra location to get their fix, and then where does that leave them?” he asked. “A lot of these people are shooting up in their house where they can then pass out. Is there going to be a nap area at the heroin clinic?”

Jake offered his own alternative.

“If there were a hotline where they could call the number and somebody, probably with a police or safety escort, could come and help them do what they need to do and then take off,” he said. “You wouldn’t need the physical building, you wouldn’t require these people to then get stuck on public transit and pass out on a bus on the way back from a heroin clinic.”

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