Jerrod Sessler and Dan Newhouse share their ideas for addressing drug overdoses and fentanyl | elections

Opioid overdose deaths have increased dramatically in the United States.

According to the Washington State Department of Health, 17,502 residents have died of a drug overdose in the past 15 years. Deaths from opioid drugs are on the rise: They nearly doubled between 2019 and 2021, according to the state health department.

It’s a problem residents of central Washington and Yakima feel keenly. There were about 96 overdose deaths in Yakima in 2023 and 98 in 2022.

Local health care providers have developed drug addiction treatment programs, and local governments are trying to raise awareness and implement solutions.

Attention to the public health crisis caused by opioids, including dangerous drugs like fentanyl, goes far beyond local governments. It’s a national issue, and the candidates in Washington’s 4th Congressional District are thinking about the issue.

Jerrod Sessler and host Dan Newhouse answered questions about fentanyl and drug overdoses.

What would you do to combat the problems with fentanyl and drug overdoses?

New House

Newhouse pointed to local efforts to combat drug overdoses and fentanyl deaths, as well as steps he has taken during his time in office.

“I put together something called the Central Washington Fentanyl Task Force, which has really been a very productive effort,” Newhouse said. “We have almost three dozen people in all walks of life who in some way have a connection to the opioid epidemic, fentanyl in part. We will be releasing our reports soon on some of the things we could do as a community to help combat this terrible affliction in our society and in downtown Washington.”

Newhouse also praised efforts to build recovery centers and alternatives to prisons for people recovering from drug addiction.

“A recovery center is being planned in Kennewick to help people get off drugs and start living a better life,” Newhouse said. “Jails and prisons are in many, many communities the only options we have to deal with these people, if you take them off the street and get them off the drugs and put them in jail. There’s not a lot of help or support for them to get their lives back, so these kinds of efforts will be really positive in the long run to help people.”

Newhouse is concerned about the production of fentanyl precursors in China; it was something he had focused on in Congress, he said. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, China-based companies manufacture precursors for fentanyl and sell them to drug producers and traffickers in Mexico and the United States.

“One of the things we’re really focused on is the exploitation by China and Chinese pharmaceutical companies of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors,” he said. “We’re going straight to them to stop this exploitation by this country, not just here in the United States, but in other countries around the world. If we can cut off the supply and then deal with the addiction here in the communities of across the country, you can take some very important steps to solve this opioid crisis.”

Sessler

Sessler’s solutions to the problems of fentanyl and drug overdoses start with law enforcement and border security. On federal border policy, Sessler focused on the southern border and the manufacture of fentanyl precursor chemicals in China.

“There is an open invitation to the world to come to America and it is the southern border (that) is freely open. We need to rescind that invitation,” Sessler said. “We need to continue to build the wall and get it done.”

Sessler said drugs were being smuggled across the southern border from Mexico. That’s true, but homeland security officials say undocumented migrants traveling on foot between ports of entry make up a small portion of the people who traffic in opiates. Most illicit fentanyl is seized at border crossings and comes from US citizens and those legally authorized to cross the border.

Sessler, like Newhouse, is also concerned about the production of fentanyl and fentanyl ingredients in China.

“The problem today is that we have raw materials from China, the DEA knows it. Why don’t they sink the ships coming from China instead of allowing them to dock and then transport them to America going to the labs? Sessler said.

Sessler said the consequences needed to be stronger for people who commit all crimes, not just drug crimes. Law enforcement officials need tools, and people who profit from the drug trade need to be held accountable, he said.

“If people think they won’t be held accountable for their crimes, then they will commit them more brazenly,” Sessler added. “They do it because they don’t think there are any consequences.”

Sessler said there are things that can be done in terms of addiction treatment and health care, but he criticized the use of opioid treatment programs that provide drug treatments to help fight addictions. Sessler did not specify which drug programs or treatments he was referring to when asked for clarification, but said he was concerned about detox treatments that provided drug users with reduced amounts for free.