Late Tuesday afternoon the Seattle City Council passed a drug possession law that will allow Seattle City Attorney Ann Davidson to prosecute many of those who a carrying such illegal drugs as fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin. Most importantly, the bill allows law enforcement to threaten suspects with prosecution if they don’t accept addiction treatment.

The action by the city council was necessary after new King County Prosecutor Leesa Manion stated in May that her office would not prosecute individuals who violated the new state laws passed by the legislature during a one-day special session. Manion made this decision knowing that nearly four people a day were dying from drug overdoses in the county.  This left it up to the cities in King County to pass their own ordinance in order to prosecute violators of the state’s drug possession law.

The council voted 6-3 to pass the ordinance (CB 120645), which is a slightly watered down version of the bill that failed to pass the council last June by a 5-4 vote.

Tuesday’s council vote was:

• District 1 Lisa Herbold – In Favor
• District 2 Tammy Morales – Opposed
• District 3 Kshama Sawant – Opposed
• District 4 Alex Pedersen – In Favor
• District 5 – Debra Juarez – In Favor
• District 6 – Dan Strauss – In Favor
• District 7 – Andrew Lewis – In Favor
• At-Large – Teresa Mosqueda – Opposed
• At-Large – Sara Nelson – In Favor

As expected, the progressive extremists showed up in droves to pack the council chambers in an attempt to scare councilmembers into not supporting the measure. As it became apparent that their side was going to lose, the extremists began to shout personal attacks at the councilmembers who supported the bill.  

Some of the progressive protestors responded to the councilmembers favorable votes by shouting “there will be blood on your hands.” Evidently these extreme activists have conveniently forgotten that their push to decriminalize lethal drugs has resulted in a record breaking number of drug overdoses and their public safety policies have resulted in record number of homicides, mostly in lower-income and minority communities.

Yet thankfully, the council finally listened to the demands of responsible citizens like yourself who are angry and frustrated at the record number of overdose deaths. Even some councilmembers are finally aware that the progressive’s strategy of decriminalizing drugs was a very dangerous and irresponsible public safety policy.

While we can congratulate ourselves on this one victory in Seattle, we most stay vigilant if we want to remove the many irresponsible policies which have made the city a very unsafe place to live, work, or visit. The Seattle City Council will have between four to eight new members after the November elections. These new councilmembers will seek to make changes. All of us will be needed to make sure these changes are responsible and make Seattle a safer place.