The Everett City Council is considering a new law that would make it a crime to expose children to dangerous drugs such as fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine.
Under a proposed ordinance now before the council, knowingly or recklessly exposing a child to certain controlled substances would become a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.
City officials say the measure is aimed at closing a gap in Washington law that currently focuses primarily on methamphetamine exposure.
Why Everett Is Proposing The Law
According to the ordinance proposal, the Everett Police Department has investigated 33 overdose cases involving minors since 2019, including one fatal incident. More than one-third of those cases involved children between the ages of 1 and 3.
Several of those incidents involved fentanyl exposure, including the fatal overdose, according to city officials.
Everett leaders said young children are particularly vulnerable because drugs can appear in forms that resemble everyday items. Controlled substances are often manufactured as powders, pills, candies, nasal sprays, or liquids, increasing the risk that children could accidentally ingest them.
What The Ordinance Would Do
The proposal would add a new section to the Everett Municipal Code called “Endangerment with a Controlled Substance.”
Under the law, a person could be charged if they knowingly or recklessly cause a child under 18 to:
- ingest
- inhale
- absorb
- or come into contact with
a Schedule I or Schedule II controlled substance, such as fentanyl, heroin, LSD, ecstasy, or cocaine.
The ordinance also covers situations where a child is exposed to smoke containing those substances.
Providing medication to a child through a valid prescription would not violate the law, proponents said.
A Gap In State Law
Washington already makes it a class B felony to expose children to methamphetamine or chemicals used to produce it, but efforts to expand that law to include fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have stalled in the state legislature.
The Everett proposal is intended to fill that gap at the local level while encouraging lawmakers in Olympia to adopt broader statewide protections.
What Happens Next
The Everett City Council received a briefing on the ordinance on Feb. 25 and held its second reading on March 4, according to the agenda materials. A final vote is expected March 11.
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