People who live and work in Belltown say drug activity in their neighborhood is as rampant as ever, despite Seattle passing a new law to ban chronic users.
A woman smokes fentanyl on a Belltown sidewalk on Friday. Even though Seattle's new Stay Out of Drug Area law has been in effect for a little more than two weeks, residents still see high drug usage in the area.
People who live and work in Belltown say drug activity in their neighborhood is as rampant as ever, despite Seattle passing a new law to ban dealers and chronic users from the area.and it went into effect a little more than two weeks ago. Neighbors said they still see police in the area on a regular basis and witness frequent arrests, but the level of fentanyl use seems unchecked.
In Belltown, the exclusion zone stretches between Second and Fourth Avenues and Blanchard and Battery Streets. SODA orders allow Seattle Municipal Court judges to ban people who are accused of certain types of drug-related crimes from being in these zones. These bans can be imposed as a condition of pretrial release as well as after a person has been convicted of the crime. Returning to that zone could get the person re-arrested and charged with a gross misdemeanor for violating the order.
KOMO News checked on Friday and was told by court officials that judges have not issued any SODA bans against defendants in the slightly more than two weeks that the law has been in effect. It’s unclear how many arrests police have made in that time period that would qualify for a SODA recommendation by prosecutors.said it would do nothing to help people overcome their addictions and would further criminalize people who are already in vulnerable situations.
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