Addiction treatment services available

PORT ANGELES — Clallam County offers a range of services to people willing to seek treatment, and the county jail has one of the state’s first medically assisted treatment clinics that can help people experiencing withdrawals while incarcerated.

After the Blake decision effectively decriminalized possession, the state Legislature passed a law making controlled substance possession a gross misdemeanor, which Delvin and Bundy said is not typically enough to compel someone into a treatment program.

For those arrested on drug charges with no prior criminal history, Washington does offer therapeutic courts as an alternative to incarceration. Drug courts will replace incarceration with certain requirements including the completion of a drug treatment program.

“Drug court on a misdemeanor, to be honest, is way too much work,” Delvin said. “To try to keep a felony off your record, that’s a big deal. Because you’re going to want to do all these things, you’re going to want to come in every week, you’re going to want to do all the requirements. But for a misdemeanor that doesn’t have a lot of teeth.”

Bundy said she’s seen the state’s drug court program successfully rehabilitate people, but without the means to compel a person into the system, the courts are less effective.

“It’s a lot of work. Some people would actually prefer to just do the time,” Bundy said.

Changing the possession laws would require action from state lawmakers, but Delvin said that’s not the direction the current state Legislature is going.

Community outreach is part of OPNET’s duties, and the prosecuting attorney’s office and the Department of Corrections have set up a program to educate the public, including children, about the dangers of fentanyl.

Delvin said she’s visited or plans to visit several schools in the county, and has sent invitations to the Sequim and Port Angeles public school districts.

“We need to educate our kids, because they are dying,” Delvin said.