The Washington State Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a proposed initiative to block funding to open up safe injection sites in King County.

In response to the opioid epidemic in 2016, Seattle and King County created a “Heroin and Prescription Opioid Addiction Task Force. This task force was created “to identify strategies and recommendations to improve access to treatment and services.” The Task Force eventually made the recommendation to establish “safe injection sites” where opioid users would be provided “with a place to safely use drugs, access to medical professionals who can administer naloxone to help reverse overdoses, a needle exchange program, and a way to connect to services and treatment.”

Proposed Initiative 27 (I-27) in King County Washington, would allow voters to, “[p]rohibit local governments and other organizations from establishing drug consumption sites in King County.” The issue that the court addressed in its ruling was whether “1-27 is outside the scope of the local initiative power and enjoined it from the ballot.”

The court held that I-27 had components that were outside the scope of the local initiative power, specifically in directing the county in how it may allocate its money.

The Council has authority delegated by statute to allocate spending within the budget. A proposed modification of an enacted appropriation ordinance would act as an invalidation of that enacted ordinance. Directing the county how it may use its money, as section 1 does, expressly negates the portion of the budgetary ordinance that establishes funding for all of the Task Force’s recommendations, including CHEL sites. Therefore, the proposed budgetary restrictions improperly interfere with the legislative authority of the Council to set budgets and appropriate money for public health work. We agree with the trial court’s holding that the prohibition on funding falls outside the scope of the local initiative power.

Due to the ruling, the local safe injection sites will be allowed to continue.