Republican Reagan Dunn speaks Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, at a Republican Party event on Election Day in Issaquah, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
(SEATTLE, Wash.) — Republican King County Councilman Reagan Dunn is proposing a local ban on public drug use.
“We have to have some set of laws in place for the worst-of-the-worst actors who refuse to take [their] drugs into a private place,” says Dunn.
His proposal would make public drug use punishable by up to 90 days in jail.
“In the absence of leadership at the state level to deal with this issue, cities and counties are forced to use their misdemeanor criminal authority they’re given,” says Dunn.
In 2021, the State Supreme Court struck down the state’s felony drug possession law. The state legislature passed a stop-gap measure, which expires July 1st, 2023.
But lawmakers failed to come to an agreement on a more permanent solution during the most recent legislative session.
A compromise bill failed in the House, as the entire Republican caucus voted ‘no.’ GOP lawmakers argued against some of the bill’s provisions, including state funding to provide clean supplies for addicts.
Democrats could have passed the bill on their own, but several progressive members of the caucus defected, either saying the punishments were too harsh or that drug possession should decriminalized altogether.
In a statement to Northwest Newsradio, Democratic King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci said the legislature’s inaction has led to a legal vacuum with no way to manage disruptive behavior.
She and Dunn are hoping Governor Inslee will call lawmakers back in special session to address drug possession before it becomes legal later this summer.
