Ross: Open container laws downtown are not the same as public drug use
Apr 19, 2023, 7:54 AM | Updated: 8:26 am
FILE - A Seattle police officer walks past tents used by people experiencing homelessness, March 11, 2022, during the clearing and removal an encampment in Westlake Park in downtown Seattle. The U.S. Justice Department and Seattle officials on Tuesday, March 28, 2023, asked a judge to end most federal oversight of the city's police department, saying its sustained, decade-long reform efforts are a model for cities around the country whose law enforcement agencies face federal civil rights investigations. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
On Monday, Mayor Bruce Harrell was in Pioneer Square to announce his executive order to reactivate downtown.
And one of the ideas was to allow people to 鈥渟ip and stroll鈥� 鈥� making it legal to buy an adult beverage, and take it with you as you stroll between bars or galleries or food trucks in the reactivated downtown.
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And 鈥� this being Seattle 鈥� of course, brought a pointed question from the audience implying a level of hypocrisy, as in, how come it鈥檚 okay to encourage selling alcohol when you鈥檙e arresting people for selling Fentanyl?
If it鈥檚 okay to stroll the sidewalks sipping a discreet martini, why can鈥檛 you inject a discreet synthetic opiate? If downtown is a safe consumption site for alcohol, why not allow the safe consumption of illegal drugs?
Councilmember Sara Nelson, who runs a brewery, decided to tackle that conundrum:
“I think there’s a false equivalency between the sip and stroll idea, which is great for small businesses and for downtown spaces, and consumption sites for illegal drugs. One is illegal, one is not,” Nelson said.
She was being very polite. What I would say is, it鈥檚 the difference between being among people who are enjoying a pleasant evening, and people who are in the process of ending their lives.
Can alcoholics drink themselves to death too? Obviously. And I would take drunks off the street and offer treatment the same way the Mayor plans to take fentanyl addicts off the street and offer treatment, the same way Medic One would take a heart attack victim off the street and offer treatment.
Whether it鈥檚 logical or not, there is a huge difference between the way alcohol is being used and the way Fentanyl is being used. And Sara Nelson wasn鈥檛 afraid to say so:
“We’re not going to be embarrassed to recognize that fentanyl is killing people. And there is a law enforcement component to this,” Nelson said.
We鈥檝e tried pretending that hard drugs are like alcohol; we鈥檝e tried looking the other way, until now it鈥檚 to the point you can’t look the other way because no matter which way you look, you see people dying.
Drug addiction is just plain ugly, and nobody wants to be around it. It鈥檚 deadly to the victims, and yes 鈥� it鈥檚 bad for business. Which is where the tax money for treatment comes from.
Maybe the day will come when people will inject Fentanyl responsibly.
But until then 鈥� it makes sense that booze in moderation will be welcomed, and drugs will not.
Listen to Seattle鈥檚 Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O鈥橞rien weekday mornings from 5 鈥� 9 a.m. on 成人X站 Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the聽podcast here.
