‘Very little faith.’ Pasco wants a plan in case WA lawmakers can’t fix drug laws

Pasco could be the third Tri-Cities community to take action to tighten its laws on simple drug possession if the Washington state lets its existing law lapse.

Richland and Kennewick already passed ordinances earlier this year making public drug use a misdemeanor, but a failure by the state Legislature to pass a last-minute and permanent fix statewide has Pasco and other municipalities considering local control.

The state’s current drug possession law, which was signed by Gov. Jay Inslee in 2021 and expires July 1, aimed to reduce drug convictions by requiring police to refer offenders for first two offenses to treatment before they can be charged with a misdemeanor.

Many critics say the current law is too lax but legislators failed to agree on the right combination of changes to adopt before the Legislature adjourned last weekend. Now, Inslee is considering calling for a special session before July.

The current law was created after the Washington Supreme Court ruling in State v. Blake removed criminal penalties for drug possession and declared felony possession unconstitutional. As a result, drug convictions statewide were thrown out.

Pasco Mayor Pro Tem Craig Maloney said at Monday night’s city council meeting that he was “deeply concerned” that the Legislature might let their drug possession law lapse.

Maloney said he doesn’t think the city should draft its own ordinance, but said they need to tee up something in case the Legislature doesn’t meet again before July.

No decision was made at the meeting, though the topic could come back to the council for more discussion. City Manager Adam Lincoln said they’re already looking at what other cities are doing.

“I’ll be very interested in making sure we have something ready to go so that if the Legislature fails us again that we have something we can put into our books, and we have municipal code that allows us to manage the possession and use of drugs,” he said.

Maloney said he and others who gathered in Peanuts Park over the weekend for the annual Pasco Taco Crawl were concerned to see people opening smoking fentanyl, publicly urinating and selling drugs.

“The police did come down and were checking things out but, again, when someone is actively smoking fentanyl and they’re not arrested or trespassed from our public park or anything, that’s deeply disturbing and something I want to understand better how to resolve this,” he said.

Council member Pete Serrano said the city should be following in the steps of other cities such as Kent — whose previous ordinances on drug enforcement inspired similar acts by the Richland and Kennewick city councils — and engage with other cities and municipalities that have implemented such laws.

Those municipalities passed ordinances that go beyond just possession to allow police to act in response to drug use, allowing them more leeway to make arrests.

Specifically they focus on public consumption of drugs, such as smoking fentanyl and littering of drug paraphernalia, including throwing away foil used to smoke fentanyl in parks.

These ordinances inspired public and police pushback that led to legislators adding more provisions in proposed bills for tackling drug use..

If the state only passes a new law focused on possession, as the current law is, the cities would still be able to use the ordinances to go beyond it to enforce against public consumption.

“I have very little faith in our Legislature, I’m going to say that. The fact that they have to get called into special session for something of this nature that should not be political. It’s an absolute health crisis,” Serrano said.