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BOTHELL – Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) today met with King County officials working on the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, an innovative community-based model that offers a helping hand rather than jail time for those suffering from substance abuse.

“The opioid crisis is tearing apart families across the country, including in Washington state,” DelBene said. “Instead of arresting and prosecuting low-level drug offenders, we should be supporting successful programs like LEAD that direct them to the services and help they need — reducing costs and recidivism in our criminal-justice system. While Congress has taken an important first step, we must continue working to dedicate the resources necessary to fully address this crisis.”

Drug overdose deaths have increased by 137 percent since 2000, surpassing the number of Americans killed in motor vehicle accidents each year. And according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths has nearly quadrupled, with more than 8,200 fatalities in 2013 alone.

“It's widely agreed that the War on Drugs approach failed to reduce drug use and cost us dearly in fiscal and human terms. But communities need an answer about what they can do instead about drug activity that will be more humane as well as more effective,” said Lisa Daugaard, policy director for the King County Public Defender Association, who helped develop LEAD. “In King County, we're lucky to have had agreement among local law enforcement and community leaders for the past five years to try a new approach that redefines the role of the police, uses harm reduction principles to engage drug users and improve their situation, and uses the justice system as a last resort. More than 40 jurisdictions around the country are now exploring or implementing LEAD because, when operating according to core principles we developed here, it works so much better than what we used to do.”

Earlier this month, the House passed the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act (H.R. 5046), which included an amendment from DelBene ensuring resources are available to scale-up Washington’s successful LEAD model to help individuals suffering from addiction. Since LEAD started in 2011, criminal recidivism rates have been reduced among participants by as much as 60 percent, according to a University of Washington study.

The House and Senate have formed a conference committee to work out differences in the chambers’ approaches to the opioid crisis. The Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act is a significant first step, authorizing $515 million for state, local and tribal grants, but Congress still needs to appropriate funding to carry out these reforms.

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