05/30/2026
Today I participated in a public safety forum for the Republican Cascade Conference.
A common theme was presented during the presentation: substance abuse. Narcotics and alcohol abuse is the underlying cause for the vast majority of the problems in every community across Washington State.
Our Narcotics Task Force pull pounds of narcotics off the street every year, but theyβre fighting a battle that cannot be won because the demand is so strong. Our only path forward to permanently solving this problem is to eliminate the demand for drugs through treatment. But thatβs only the beginning of the challenge.
Treatment isnβt linear, nor is it a one size fits all solution because the people engaging in treatment and their precipitating circumstances are unique. To make matters worse, we are up against some influential factors when it comes to drug use. We live in a society that glorifies drug usage as a pathway to euphoric success, but becomes silent about the long term effects and poor outcomes when it inevitably goes wrong.
I also spent some time today highlighting the success of therapeutic drug courts across the state. The reality is that government alone is unequipped to solve this problem alone: itβs going to take community engagement, personal ownership, peer pressure, enforcement, therapeutic courts, nonprofits, viable treatment beds that are readily available to meet the moment, and most importantly: tying up the loose ends of trauma that lead people into addiction, and mitigating the challenges that make it easier for people to stay there.
