The bipartisan insanity of the Legislature's failure to take effective action on Fentanyl/Tranq and response to a GOP surrogate.

A state GOP Committeewoman for Ferry County wrote a letter making the rounds effectively patting the legislative Republicans for their support of the recent debacle that will result in even more overodse deaths statewide as a dirt3ect result of their failure to take any effective action to reduce the numbers of corpses stacking up around the state.

The letter is here. Below is my response:

I beg to differ. This bill was an abandonment of the people of this state and both parties are equally responsible.

What we needed from the legislature was action… action that would make a difference. What we got was motion, and a growing pile of bodies from an explosion of overdoses which will not be reduced by even one child as a result of anything these people believe they accomplished.

What we got was a complete abrogation of the legislature’s responsibility to the people who live here.

Instead of putting away the people who manufacture or distribute fentanyl or other substances like trang for life, they went out on a tiny branch, as opposed to a large limb, and made possession of these substances the same level of crime as Theft 3, aka shoplifting.

And how frequently does shoplifting get prosecuted in this state?

Washington State is once again on a record pace of overdose deaths due to fentanyl this year. There are so many, coming in so fast, that the medical examiner for King County has publicly complained about a horrific lack of room in the morgue for all of the bodies along with a huge autopsy backlog and this bill did nothing to relieve that, either.

Does anyone remotely believe that this traffic-ticket law, which provides zero genuine deterrence for the manufacture, sale or distribution of these drugs, will actually result in any reduction in the numbers in that pile of bodies?

Was it that long ago that we’ve already forgotten about the girl overdosing in a Hudson’s Bay high school restroom, only to have the Administration do everything they could to cover up the real cause of her death?

This law is an abomination. It will save no one. Men, women and children will continue to die because of it. It is death through legislative indifference and every single vote for this from either party will result in blood on their hands.

I am acutely aware of this scourge that the legislature, in real terms, did nothing about. They want us to confuse motion with action. They want their surrogates to punch out propaganda like this to TRY and convince us that something was actually accomplished.

Well, the growing pile of bodies, which exceeded 120,000 across the country in the last calendar year, says otherwise.

In this day and age, I don’t go anywhere unarmed. But in addition? I don’t go anywhere without 2 doses of Narcan, the fentanyl antidote.

Not because *I* use drugs, but because these overdoses are becoming increasingly common-place and legislative inaction, including this most recent clown show, is a major part of that. It might, just might, save a life.

It’s just a damned shame that this legislative charade won’t do the same.