(The Center Square) – A prominent state senator indicated that fiscal reality could mean prioritizing and protecting substance abuse recovery programs that are already working over any plans to expand them. Washington state is facing a projected operating budget deficit of between $10 billion and $16 billion over the next four years.
“I want to be realistic, but I am also optimistic and have faith in my fellow legislators and for me, success really means that we are protecting the programs that are already in play,” Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, said at a Monday morning virtual meeting of the Substance Use Recovery Services Advisory Committee, or SURSAC, that included legislative priorities for the upcoming session. “I’m not optimistic enough to talk about expansion.”
According to the Washington Health Care Authority, SURSAC includes a panel of individuals with lived experience, legislative representation, and subject matter expertise related to behavioral health community needs, harm reduction, outreach, treatment and recovery support services. The committee provides policy recommendations to the Legislature.
Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, has pre-filed House Bill 1092 that would protect children from parents abusing illicit drugs, including fentanyl, which The Center Square asked Dhingra about.
She said she would not comment without having read the legislation.
In response to a question about the use of empirical data regarding the effectiveness of substance abuse recovery programs, Dhingra pushed back.
“This is sounding like a press conference,” she said, “but we are always wanting to be data-driven and evidence-based in what we do, and that is not going to change.”
SURSAC member Malika Lamont also took issue with the way the question about measuring substance abuse recovery program effectiveness was phrased to include terms “addict” and “clean and sober.”
“As a member of this group, I just want to bring it forward that it’s unfortunate that we experienced what we just experienced,” she said in reference to The Center Square’s query. “Somebody coming into this meeting and using really discriminatory language against people that have experienced SUD [substance use disorder] … I’m hoping we can do a better job managing the conversation.”
In a chat message during the virtual meeting, she provided a link to a person-first language website that advocates for things like using “someone who uses substances” in place of “addict.”
“We had a practice in the past where we had a practice of using people-first language and being respectful in our language, and so I would ask that we get back into that practice because there are people who are joining us who are not familiar with that and brought in really disrespectful language,” Lamont continued. “So I would ask we make an effort to have a culture of respect so far as the language we use when we’re talking about people.”
The committee expressed a desire to fully implement Senate Bill 6109, which was passed during the 2024 legislative session. SB 6109 expands the reach of Child Protective Services by allowing CPS to further intervene in cases where parents or caregivers struggle with substance use disorders.
Couture told The Center Square that the legislation did not go far enough, and he will try once again to clean up House Bill 1227, which was passed by the Legislature and signed into law in 2021 and is known as the “Keeping Families Together Act.” HB 1227 raised the legal standard for removing a child from the home after a report of abuse or neglect.
Couture contends HB 1227 “allows parents to abuse hard drugs while the state does not remove those children from the home.”
The 105-day legislative session convenes on Jan. 13.
