Rep. Gina Mosbrucker calls for action against fentanyl at press conference - Feb. 23, 2024

thank you very much and just really grateful that you're here joining us to discuss the fentanyl synth synthetic opioid epidemic that we're facing not only in Washington but also in the US and I would argue even globally uh the AMA recently said that teen overdoses doubled in the last three years and one of the most alarming things they're also sharing is that you can get same day delivery of fentanyl which is being marketed to kids on Snapchat this is a crisis this is something we have to address and prioritize I've been fortunate through the process to complete almost complete two bills very excited how fast they're moving and how much support we have from my great colleagues the first bill is Ivan's law and Ivan was a amazing 24y old basketball player who played ball in my hometown gym in Goldendale Washington he fought fentol for years and years in and out of the systems and this summer took his life in our click County Jail it's heartbreaking to see what we go through but I decided how do I learn about fentel how do I find out from those who were directly impacted so I decided to do a tour I started in Goldendale Washington had a couple hundred people which is surprising because it's small and just gave them the mic we also brought Naran trained it and handed it out to anyone there who wanted it so my parents for example have Naran in their jockey box they're in their 80s we also decided that we needed to go the accommodation reached out and said would you come do the same thing we heard you did this in Goldendale can you please come to topenish came to topenish and there were 200 probably 250 people who we had four hours of heartbreaking testimony of how it had impacted their lives themselves their children their family members who had overdosed and just tried to take as many notes as we could to make sure we move forward lastly I the missing piece was the homeless population so I went to Camp hope in yaka Washington and spent 4 hours in a tent at night with 231 residents that night who came to tell their story and how it had touched their lives this bill that's called Ivan's law touches and took the notes and compiled them into a smaller list of course because there were thousands of things the state can do to fix this the first thing was to make sure that we knew that this is a this is a pill this is a a powder this is something that you can't do even once other drugs many people can do once and then quit fentanyl takes over your life and it takes you down a spiral that's almost impossible to get back out and can even lead to death as in Ivan's case we learned from many people that said I didn't know I couldn't do it just once and try it so it does a campaign with Department of Health to make sure across the state of Washington people know you cannot do this more than once it also looks at decontamination of vehicles that have had fentanyl in there we heard many families they son daughter had gotten in the car with their friends to go smoke fentanyl came home and not knowingly in the morning the mom or dad would get in the vehicle put the car seats in the back seat with their grandkids or their children and the whole family would be sick as they drove so we've got to figure out a way to figure out what is this fanol contamination doing to our vehicles in Washington state we have stolen vehicles which we're very grateful to get back we don't get back enough but when we do often we can detect venyl we have police vehicles at auctions were selling we have to make sure they're not harmful when those people get those so it asked the waspic to do the work and to compile information and give that information out so that we can move forward next session with a solution last thing I learned repeatedly was my favorite and most heartbreaking I was in the tent camp hope and there was a gentleman who came up at the end and said can I have the mic and I said absolutely he had been in and out of the system he was in and out of prison for f and he had he said you're completely doing this wrong in the state of Washington and I said great teach me like what do I need to know that I don't know and he said I'm on the street and he said you come up to me and you say do you want to go to jail or do you want to go to treatment and we decide a path and he said I'm high he said why are you asking me what I want to do with my life at a time when I'm unable to make a good decision about my life he said we go to jail he said I'm always going to pick jail if I go to jail I can get out in a few days you're going to let me back out he said I'll go through detox I'll get out and my dealer will be parked outside with the car running to give me a ride so he said we're going to pick jail to get on the drug but in Yakama there was a great correction officer that stopped by the cell when he was detoxing and said I see you're getting better now how do you feel and he said I'm okay and he said do you want treatment now and he said absolutely he was he said I was sober and he said it's the only reason I'm standing here here talking to you guys tonight so we can do a better job this bill addresses those three things really hope that it continues to move through the system the other Bill briefly just is about fentanyl making sure that our dogs in Washington state are detecting fentanyl currently a dog will walk by and untrained will not know that there's fentanyl there they will not know that they need to alert for it and they could be in danger of the fentanyl doses that we see so this bill is moving forward we're also really happy about that and just lastly I want to make sure that all of you can please help me share that we don't want people to die to get high so please make sure that if ask them to not do that and to ask for us for help instead we're all here to help thank you very much