In response to recent announcements from local elected leaders after the legislature failed to find agreement regarding the Blake decision, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce issued the following statement:
“The scale of fentanyl and methamphetamine use in our region demands that officials take action at every opportunity. We need to support individuals with treatment options, we need crisis response, and we need to address the very real public safety issues that come alongside the public use of dangerous drugs. To that end, we supported King County’s Crisis Care Levy, which the voters are passing; we worked closely with Mayor Bruce Harrell on his executive order on fentanyl, and we support today’s proposal as another tool aimed at disrupting deadly fentanyl distribution. People are dying in our communities every day and while the idea of a patchwork approach to laws regulating drug use and possession across the state is frustrating, the absence of the state taking action means our local officials will.”