Local lawmakers are getting a jump-start on plans to secure money to battle methamphetamine in their neighborhoods.
“We want to know what resources law enforcement needs and what the extent of the problem is,” said state Rep. Al O’Brien, D-Mountlake Terrace.
O’Brien is chairman of the Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee, which held a hearing Thursday, Dec. 16 at the University of Washington, Bothell, after this edition of The Enterprise went to press, to discuss the meth problem in Snohomish County.
O’Brien and state Reps. Brian Sullivan, D-Mukilteo, and John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, invited local police, county prosecutors, health officials and community members to talk about what can be done to drive meth out of the community.
The Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force planned to talk about its constraints in investigating meth dealers who aren’t considered major sellers, Everett Lt. Mark St. Clair said.
The task force receives a large chunk of funding from federal grants. Those grants come with strings attached. The task force must focus on top-level dealers.
“A lot of the meth problems are street level, so there’s a gap there,” St. Clair said. “I think the state could help plug that gap.”
The representatives say they are in the process of drafting a bill that would provide $3 million to create a program in Snohomish County and solidify programs already in place in Pierce County, Sullivan said.
Snohomish County needs money to add prosecutors, police, treatment options and jail space, Sullivan said.
The money also could be used to fund the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office proposal for a 10-member meth strike team, Lovick said.
For more information about the Youth Meth Summit call Beth Kerwin at 425-239-1956.
Diana Hefley is a reporter with The Herald in Everett.
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