BELLINGHAM, Wash. — The Bellingham City Council voted to make public drug use an arrestable offense at a meeting on Monday night.
The ordinance was put forward by the city's mayor, Seth Fleetwood.
Fleetwood first introduced the ordinance in March, but it was shot down by the council due to a lack of diversion options within the city.
City council members wanted to be assured that drug users could be referred to treatment before they would be arrested.
A month later, with steps taken toward the creation of a specialized drug court, five out of seven council members voted in favor of the ordinance when it was brought forward a second time.
"We're not hoping to push people into the dark," Fleetwood said at the meeting. "We're saying that fentanyl should not be smoked on downtown streets because it's dangerous for the individual that's smoking it and for the public bystanders, and it's scaring people away."
Fleetwood said city numbers report an average of over two overdoses a day this year so far, which is a 70% increase over last year. He says stopping drug use in public would address this issue head-on.
Two city council members, Kristina Martens and Michael Lilliquist voted no. Both expressed concern that diversion options aren't already in place for drug users who would be impacted by the ordinance. Martens also said she didn't have faith they would come together after the ordinance was put in place.
"These human beings who we have failed on every single level in our nation to leave them on the street self-medicating with whatever cheap drug they can get their hands on to try and numb the pain, this is about moving them to dimmer streets," Martens said.
Under current state law, a drug user must be warned twice and offered treatment options, before they would face a misdemeanor offense.
That is expected to change this summer as the current law will expire and the state Legislature considers a bill that would make public drug use an arrestable offense. That bill has passed the Senate and is awaiting a vote in the House.