Community Government Health & Wellness

Pierce County, Gig Harbor pressure state to strengthen laws around exposing children to opioids

Posted on November 26th, 2024 By: Conor Wilson

A new drug endangerment law adopted unanimously by the Pierce County Council seeks to make it easier for prosecutors to charge someone for exposing a child to opioids or other controlled substances.

Pierce County adopted the law, which makes reckless drug exposure a gross misdemeanor, five months ago. Now county officials have turned their attention to the state, where efforts to expand felony endangerment laws failed to gain traction over the last two years.

State law makes accidental or negligent drug poisonings a felony only in cases that involve methamphetamines. The exclusion of other drugs, Pierce County officials say, restricts their ability to hold people accountable.

Gig Harbor considering same law

Pierce County Prosecutor Mary Robnett, whose office brought the endangerment policy to council, said they would urge lawmakers to revisit endangerment laws during next year’s legislative session. They are also encouraging cities to pass similar laws at the local level.

The Gig Harbor City Council heard a first reading on an ordinance creating a city-level endangerment statute on Monday, Nov. 25. The city ordinance mirrors the policy adopted at the county level.

City Police Chief Kelly Busey said a local ordinance might “apply some pressure to the state.”

“There is the urging of the city council to lean on the state Legislature a bit,” he said during a meeting this month.

Washington adopted its endangerment with a controlled substance statute in 2002. The law made exposing a child to methamphetamines, ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or anhydrous ammonia a class B felony, punishable by up to a decade in prison.

Endangerment cases are rare

Cases of accidental exposure involving children are uncommon. Yet some officials argue the state should update endangerment statutes to reflect the growing presence of opioids like fentanyl, which have surpassed methamphetamines as the primary drug of concern.

Before 2021, meth was the most common drug seized by law enforcement and submitted for testing, according to data from Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute at the University of Washington. Non-heroin opioids, primary fentanyl, surpassed it in 2022.

“In the ‘90s and early 2000s methamphetamine was big. That was the drug of choice and that’s what we saw a lot of on the street,” Busey said. “Now it’s fentanyl.”

Despite the changing landscape, proposals seeking to expand state endangerment statutes to include a reference to opioids and other drugs have faced roadblocks in the state house. Legislators have expressed worries about criminalizing addiction and separating parents from children.

No endangerment penalty if child survives

State Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver, introduced a bill, SB 5010, to broaden the state’s endangerment law in 2023. The policy specifically added references to synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Wilson and the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office argued that without that update there were few avenues to provide accountability if a child survived an accidental poisoning.

When a child dies from an accidental or negligent drug exposure, prosecutors can file felony manslaughter charges. If they survive, prosecutors are unable to bring felony charges unless the incident involves methamphetamines.

“We have laws that allow for charges if a child is exposed to drugs and they die,” Wilson said in 2023. “Our laws are way outdated and do not allow for charges of endangerment for those little children and babies where lifesaving measures were successful.”

King County Prosecutor Lisa Manion voiced support for the bill in an open letter, writing it was a “common-sense solution to more appropriately address the serious act of exposing a child to fentanyl as felony-level behavior.”

“The current law was written decades ago, well before anyone foresaw the fentanyl crisis impacting our community,” she said.

Kitsap County Prosecutor Chad Enright said it was good that some people were trying to do something, noting that while accidental exposures are uncommon, they are concerning. He said Kitsap County prosecutors had a case in March in which a 5-year-old was exposed to fentanyl. They were unable to file charges.

State bill foundered in House

Wilson’s bill passed out of the Senate with near-unanimous support during the 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions, before stalling in the House. The lower chamber’s Community Safety, Justice & Reentry Committee, has twice returned it to the Senate Rules Committee.

Rep. Tarra Simmons, D-Bremerton and vice chair of that House Community Safety Committee, did not return a message seeking comment.

Opponents of the bill argued that those who use drugs around children likely have complex substance use disorders and would benefit from treatment and social services. The threat of prison time, they say, is not an effective response and would likely make the situation worse.

Pierce County Councilmember Robyn Denson, who represents Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula, said the primary goal of the local endangerment ordinance is to protect vulnerable populations, like children, from harm. Until this law was in place, county officials said they had few tools available to protect children facing drug exposure.

Gross misdemeanor

The new Pierce County endangerment law allows prosecutors to charge people with a gross misdemeanor – as opposed to a felony – if they knowingly or recklessly expose a child to a controlled substance other than cannabis. Substances obtained legally through a medical professional are also excluded.

A gross misdemeanor means a person convicted could face up to a year in jail. Prosecutors say they will prioritize deferral to treatment, where possible.

Denson said she was unsure if the change would encourage more people to seek treatment, but remained hopeful.

“The more serious charge may cause more individuals to avail themselves of our therapeutic treatment courts, for example, which provide a great deal of support to people seeking recovery from substance abuse disorders,” she wrote in an email.

Robnett, the Pierce County prosecutor, pushed back on the idea that the bill was criminalizing addiction. She drew a distinction between punishing an individual for making the choice to use an illicit substance versus penalizing someone for use that impacts a child.

“It’s a chance for somebody in the system to keep that child safe,” she said. “It’s a chance for an intervention. I hope a lifesaving chance.”

Conor Wilson is a Murrow News fellow, reporting for Gig Harbor Now and the Bremerton-based newspaper Kitsap Sun, through a program managed by Washington State University.