Detective: Keep safe-injection sites away from Pierce County

A Pierce County official is telling King County to keep safe-injection sites for heroin users away from his community.

There are two safe-injection sites for heroin users that have been proposed locally — one in Seattle and another in greater King County. But neighboring Pierce County isn’t as keen on the program.

Two safe-injection sites proposed for Seattle region

“Keep them up there (in King County),” said Ed Troyer with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office. “We can send you clients.”

Troyer argued that such a program risks attracting more addicts to the area by giving them cover from the law to use a drug they are addicted to.

“Isn’t it attracting people from all over the country? And what about your homeless population?” Troyer said. “I know from some of the cops I’ve talked to up there, most the homeless people they encounter on the streets aren’t from that area, but you’ve set it up for them pretty good.”

The issue of safe-injection sites came up while Troyer was discussing a related issue — children with addict parents. Three children — ages 2, 4, and 6 — were recently placed in protective custody after it was discovered their mother was allegedly injecting them with heroin to get them to sleep at night.

“’Sleep juice’ is a term for heroin the mom used when she was injecting it into her kids to get them to go to sleep,” Troyer said.

The mother, Ashlee Hutt, 25, of Spanaway, and Leroy McIver pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree child assault, delivery of a controlled substance to a person under 18 and child endangerment, according to KIRO 7.

The children were taken away in November 2015 after an investigation.

“We did move slow on it, it took six months, because the kids were in protective custody and were fine,” Troyer said. “It took some time, we wanted to do it right. We now want to make sure Mom is held responsible for her actions.”

“I don’t feel sorry for her because she knows what she was doing, and if she herself is a heroin addict, then she knows first-hand that she shouldn’t be putting it into little kids,” he said. “She’s had three kids, she’s old enough to know better, so I don’t feel sorry for her at all. I hope she gets the help she needs.”

Charges: Ashlee Hutt, 24, injected heroin into her children ages 2, 4, & 6. They reportedly called it “feel good medicine” pic.twitter.com/00zyAqeVOm

— Kevin McCarty (@KevinKIRO7) October 31, 2016

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