In the state Senate, our Democratic colleagues have picked up where they left off in 2023 by trying to help the government grab more of your money through property-tax increases.
While Republican senators work to derail their tax-and-spend plan, we are picking up where we left off on addressing the drug-overdose crisis that continues to ruin countless lives and tear families apart. This work fits with two of our session priorities: restoring public safety and improving the lives of our children.
The drug epidemic was one of the two public-safety issues that dominated this past year’s legislative session — the other being police pursuits.
The pursuit issue is being addressed by this year’s Initiative 2113. Its passage would do away with the criminal-friendly restraints on pursuits that have contributed to the rise in crime across our state these past couple of years — a small step in the right direction. I will strongly support I-2113 as a bill in the Senate or, if the Democratic majority refuses to hold a hearing and act on it this session, I will vote for the initiative in November’s election.
The drug crisis, which exploded after the state Supreme Court’s Blake decision overturned Washington’s felony drug-possession law in 2021, is a different sort of challenge.
While having a strong drug-possession law is important, we must also increase access to drug treatment and work to prevent overdoses in the first place. That’s where the Senate Republicans’ Recovery Washington agenda comes in.
Two bills supporting this agenda come from Sen. Chris Gildon of Puyallup. His Senate Bill 6297 recognizes how people arrested for drug possession may benefit most from being ordered into treatment, rather than sitting in jail or being released back to the street. It would give courts the authority to choose that option.
Senate Bill 6134 would restore funding for multi-jurisdictional law-enforcement drug task forces and create a committee of experts — physicians, coroners, overdose survivors and more — to offer strategic advice. Sen. Gildon’s military-officer background shows through when he describes how this bill also would also require the Department of Health to collect information in support of creating a mapping system that helps with deploying resources.
If you have read or seen a news report about a parent grieving the loss of a child who died from taking a pill, not knowing it contained fentanyl, then you can appreciate the intent of Senate Bill 5906. Sen. Lynda Wilson of Vancouver refers to her proposal as the “One Pill Kills” legislation, as it would require the Department of Health to conduct an awareness campaign with that kind of theme.
Just as preventing a fire is preferable to being forced to use the fire extinguisher, Sen. Wilson believes it’s better if our children don’t have to be revived with naloxone because they knew enough to avoid a mystery pill in the first place. It makes sense to me, too.
She is also trying again to update Washington’s “endangerment with a controlled substance” law to include fentanyl and synthetic opioids. The law was created about 20 years ago to target adults who cooked methamphetamine with kids present. Majority Democrats in the House let the bill die last year; we’re giving them another chance to step up and support justice for children who are injured — but not fatally — by exposure to these new poisons.
I’m saddened that the drug-overdose crisis is hitting our tribal neighbors harder than any other community in our state — but heartened that tribal leaders are fighting back. That’s why I filed Senate Bill 6099, to direct some of the opioid-settlement money our state received toward the tribes’ prevention and treatment efforts.
Because Republicans are currently outnumbered at the Capitol, we tend to be on defense. But 2023 showed we can still drive the agenda at times, especially on public safety. The disastrous drug-legalization social experiment Democrats forced on our state nearly three years ago might still be in full swing had it not been for Republican proposals and pressure.
Our Recovery Washington agenda is meant to build on the progress made this past year while recognizing our state still has a lot of work to do to turn the tide on the drug epidemic. Too many families have suffered too much already. Their legislators must do better.
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Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.
