A citizen activist group has launched an initiative effort to block so-called “safe injection sites” for drug addicts in Seattle and King County, Washington.
This comes just two days after Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, a chief proponent of the sites, announced he will not be seeking re-election in the fall. He has become mired in a controversy stemming from a civil lawsuit filed by a man who claims Murray sexually abused him some 30 years ago. Since the lawsuit was filed, three other men have come forward with similar allegations. Murray is openly gay, and started his political career as a gay rights activist.
The heroin injection site plan was first proposed some months ago by Murray and King County Executive Dow Constantine. Instead of trying to combat illegal drug use, critics have argued, these two liberal Democrat career politicians have suggested a way to enable more of it. Their policies regarding drug abusers and the homeless have allegedly turned Seattle and King County into a magnet for such people who come to “Free-attle” for all the benefits.
Into this situation has stepped a group calling itself Safe King County. Initiative 27 will, if passed, prohibit the use of any public funds for the registration, licensing, construction, acquisition, transfer, authorization, use, or operation of a supervised drug consumption site.
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By no small coincidence, KIRO Eyewitness News – the CBS affiliate in Seattle – reported Wednesday that “State health officials are alarmed by the increase in deaths related to fentanyl, an opioid drug that can be 50 times more powerful than heroin.” The story alluded to University of Washington researchers who, working with county and state health officials, found that 70 people died from fentanyl overdoses last year.
Murray and Constantine started the push for “safe injection” sites on the recommendation of the Heroin and Prescription Opiate Addiction Task Force. Initiative 27 just might bring that to a screeching halt.
Key points of the initiative listed on the Safe King County website include this: “Supervised drug consumption sites are inconsistent with protecting citizens and helping drug addicts.”
The “safe consumption sites” will not supply junkies with a clean “fix.” They would have to bring their own drugs. How they obtain those drugs just might involve some illegal activity, such as burglary or car prowls, an aspect of this scenario nobody cares to discuss.
The initiative, say proponents, encourages local governments to offer treatment instead of making continued drug use possible.
Earlier this year, KING 5 News – the local NBC affiliate – reported that supporters of the safe injection site plan “believe it would reduce the number of overdose deaths.” But this is the same thinking behind another Murray-supported effort, the so-called “gun violence tax” on firearms and ammunition.
That measure was supposed to raise between $300,000 and $500,000 annually – which it didn’t and probably never will – to spend on “gun violence” prevention, which it hasn’t.
There is an interesting video on the heroin epidemic available on YouTube titled “HEROIN: The Epidemic in Our Backyard 2017.” Posted by “Addicts Lives Matter,” this 29-minute video produced by WQED in Pennsylvania is an eye-opener.
Drug abuse isn’t going away anytime soon. Enabling users by providing public-funded safe injection sites is only going to slow the process, which seems to be the reasoning behind the new initiative.
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