(The Center Square) – King County continues to see drug overdose deaths at an alarming rate, with the most deaths in a single week being reported since the unofficial beginning of summer.
Between Aug. 10 and Aug. 14, there were 19 drug-related deaths reported in King County, according to data provided by the county medical examiner. One of the victims was a 15-year-old girl.
That’s the most overdose deaths in a single week since The Center Square began tracking after Memorial Day weekend, and also the youngest overdose death reported during that period.
Since May 26, 165 people have died from overdosing on drugs, with many deaths involving some combination of fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine, data shows.
“I don’t think we understand just the reverberating effect of widespread drug overdose in Washington state,” said Marsha Michaelis, project coordinator and research fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth & Poverty.
Michaelis said Washington’s “permissive drug policies” enable people to continue using or selling drugs instead of being held accountable for their actions.
“We don’t punish or we don’t have laws against having hard drugs and possessing drugs, we often don’t enforce laws against the selling and trading of drugs. And so we get a predictable result, which is that this substance that for many people is a huge snare,” she said.
King County utilizes a “harm-reduction” approach to dealing with drug addiction and overdoses, according to the county’s website.
“Harm reduction is an evidence-based, patient-centered approach to minimize the negative impacts of high-risk behaviors, like drug use.”
King County spent more than $50 million for resources and services “including low-barrier medications for opioid use disorder, distribution of naloxone, and outreach teams,” according to the 2025 budget.
King County Public Health did not respond to an interview request or emailed questions from The Center Square before publication.
Michaelis said that approach leads to people continuing to abuse drugs rather than get the help they need.
“You know, if you talk to people who are in recovery, talk to many addicts, they don’t want to be addicted to drugs,” she said. “But we are comfort loving creatures. We are pleasure loving creatures. We have a hard time self-regulating.
“And so when you have good boundaries around your life, a loving family, a good social network, good laws, you know, they’re actually enforced. It really helps human beings live and thrive.”
But when there are no legal consequences for drug sale or use, addiction persists, she said.
“In Washington State, we have removed a lot of those barriers,” Michaelis said. “For some, I think it’s a false idea of compassion, you know, that if we’re just soft on people, they’ll be able to choose to do right.”
While the “harm reduction” approach seeks to help those addicted to drugs by providing free and accessible naloxone, medications for opioid use disorder like methadone and buprenorphine and syringe service programs, deaths in the county continue at a rate of around two overdose fatalities per day.
Michaelis argues that approach not only hurts the individual, but the community as well.
“We can see the effects on communities where they’re less safe, they’re less clean. You know, people can’t use their public parks,” Michaelis said.
“They can’t walk down the sidewalk. Businesses can’t succeed and thrive because customers don’t want to come into these areas that have been blighted by drug use and open drug markets. And so it hurts everyone, and not least the person who is suffering, who needs the restraints of the law and needs those benefits.”
According to the county website, “every life lost to overdose is preventable. We need to use all the tools we have available to save lives. A public health approach to overdose prevention relies on a spectrum of evidence-based services that work together to empower people to make safer choices when it comes to drug use.”
Michaelis says legal consequences are the most effective tool that should be used to slow the number of overdose deaths in King County and across the state.
“I would say immediately look into the drug policies and actually get serious about putting barriers. Barriers are good. Put barriers between addicts and dealers, you know, end the markets that are just so freely being used in Washington state right now,” she said. “More serious penalties and more serious laws that curtail drug trade, drug use, is really important.”