Questions about what comes next after legislature adjourned without a new drug law

Questions swirled Monday about what comes next after a surprise vote in Olympia left state legislators adjourning without a new drug possession law.

On Sunday, in the final hours of the legislative session, state House members voted down a bill to make drug possession a gross misdemeanor.

Supporters said it was a compromise to push people into treatment through the criminal justice system.

All Republicans voted against it, as did Democrats who want decriminalization.

“We had 43 Democrats, there was no help from the Republicans,” Gov. Jay Inslee said Sunday night.

“The fact that the bill didn’t pass is not a House Republican issue in spite of what the governor had to say,” said Rep. JT Wilcox, the outgoing minority leader, who noted that majority Democrats choose which bills get a floor vote.

After the state Supreme Court ruled Washington’s felony drug possession law unconstitutional, lawmakers in 2021 passed a stopgap making it a misdemeanor.

If there’s not a new law by July 1, all drugs will be decriminalized under state law.

“It is unacceptable to me, it is unacceptable to the State of Washington, to decriminalize drugs,” Inslee said Sunday.

Inslee suggested he’ll call a special session once lawmakers have a deal.

“We didn’t get the solution we needed to protect our communities. While that is very frustrating, as a local government we have to act,” said Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier.

Pierce County officials are starting work on a local ordinance, hoping to coordinate with cities to make the law consistent.

Alison Holcomb of the ACLU of Washington said many local governments already have misdemeanor drug possession laws on the books, but the focus should be on building good treatment systems, not coercing people into treatment by arresting them.

“We already have more than 50 years of trying to arrest people and scare them into just saying no and it just hasn’t worked,” Holcomb said.

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