Home Democrats lastly must put a child-safety invoice up for a vote.
That’s what ought to occur to commonsense laws that will prolong present little one endangerment legal guidelines to incorporate publicity to fentanyl.
Senate Bill 5071 was sponsored by a bipartisan group of senators, together with Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, and Senate Minority Chief John Braun, R-Centralia.
It might increase the scope of the crime of endangerment with a managed substance to incorporate fentanyl, not simply substances associated to methamphetamine.
Below present regulation, an individual commits the crime of endangerment with a managed substance in the event that they knowingly allow a baby to be uncovered to methamphetamine or the chemical substances essential to manufacture it.
It’s a class B felony, with a regular sentencing vary of three to 9 months to 63 to 84 months relying on the defendant’s legal historical past.
Between 2019 and 2023, a median of three individuals per 12 months have been convicted of endangerment with a managed substance. That’s simply involving methamphetamine. Fentanyl is a much more major problem.
In keeping with a report last year by the state Workplace of the Household and Youngsters’s Ombuds on little one fatalities and critical accidents of youngsters underneath state safety, demise and accidents involving fentanyl elevated from 38 in 2022 to 57 in 2023.
These supporting SB 5071 embrace Seattle Metropolis Legal professional Ann Davison, King County Prosecuting Legal professional Leesa Manion and Pierce County Prosecuting Legal professional Mary Robnett.
“When a baby is uncovered to fentanyl, we have to each maintain the adults accountable whereas additionally addressing the basis explanation for their underlying habit,” stated Manion. “The present regulation was written effectively earlier than anybody foresaw the fentanyl disaster impacting our neighborhood — this statute should be up to date to replicate in the present day’s challenges.”
Testifying towards SB 5071 was a consultant of the Washington Affiliation of Prison Protection Attorneys.
On Feb. 5, the invoice handed the state Senate by a bipartisan vote of 42-7.
It now sits within the House Community Safety Committee, chaired by Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland.
An identical invoice died on this committee final 12 months, and the 12 months earlier than that, even after passing unanimously within the Senate. Home Democrats, in line with Goodman final 12 months, considered the laws as a part of the failed battle on medicine.
So let Home Democrats take a vote. Go on document. If that’s the idea, get up for it and make an argument, don’t merely kill the laws by inaction. Or suggest repealing the regulation on little one endangerment when it entails methamphetamine, if all drug legal guidelines are dangerous.
Leaving the established order leaves Home Democrats open to criticism that they worth ideological purity over defending kids’s lives. Because the fentanyl disaster continues to take extra lives, that stance must be politically untenable.
