After adding stronger language, the Spokane Valley City Council passed a proposal Tuesday that fills a hole in state law regarding reckless endangerment with fentanyl.
Endangerment with a controlled substance at the state level comes with a Class B felony, but it only applies to methamphetamine and chemicals used to manufacture the drug. The law doesn’t apply to fentanyl or other opioids, so if officers don’t find meth, they usually rely on other charges.
The council first proposed the ordinance to protect dependent children after two toddlers got into their parents’ stash earlier this year and overdosed. However, that law wouldn’t protect residents who might be inadvertently exposed to narcotics, so the officials decided to bolster the statute.
Tuesday’s version applies to endangering anyone with a controlled substance, and unlike a prior copy, it adds some teeth by imposing mandatory minimums. The Legislature preempts penalties that exceed its own, so the city raised the stakes wherever it could under a gross misdemeanor.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Ray Hilbrich
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.offthepress.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
