Dow Constantine announces heroin, opiate addiction task force | Mixed messages on city of Bellevue’s involvement

With the scope of drug addition changing in King County, County Executive Dow Constantine announced the formation of a heroin and opiate-specific task force, although the city of Bellevue's role in the organization is still under question.

By Allison DeAngelis • March 1, 2016 3:06 pm

With the scope of drug addition changing in King County, County Executive Dow Constantine announced the formation of a heroin and opiate-specific task force, although the city of Bellevue’s role in the organization is still under question.

“Addiction to heroin and prescription pain killers is devastating families in every one of our communities—sparing no age, race, gender, neighborhood or income level,” said Executive Constantine. “Our region has a proud tradition of working together across disciplines to achieve a common goal. It’s now time for us to apply that sense of shared purpose to confront this epidemic.”

The task force will include more than 30 members from public health organizations, human service agencies, law enforcement, city governments, hospitals and the University of Washington.. The Task Force on Heroin and Prescription Opiate Addiction will convene in March and will immediately begin developing short- and long-term action steps to expand treatment capacity, expand prevention efforts and more.

The city of Bellevue will be involved in the task force, according to representatives from Executive Constantine’s office and a press release. However, they have not yet named a representative and spokespersons for the Bellevue city government and police force said they had no knowledge of the task force.

The prevalence of heroin and opiates has been increasing not only in King County, but the Eastside in particular.

There were 156 heroin-related deaths in King County in 2014, the highest number in 20 years. Overall opiate overdose deaths also reached record numbers that year, and were more than triple the number of opiate deaths in 2009.

Both the amount of heroin seized by the Eastside Narcotics Task Force, as well as the amount of Narcan used by the Bellevue Fire Department to reverse the effects of an opiate overdose have increased over the last few years.

The announcement comes two weeks after the Reporter revealed that the Eastside Narcotics Task Force will be disbanding, despite the increase in opiate usage and crimes.