Clallam Is Slumping Under the Weight of its Choices
Dozens of "slumped" calls paint a picture our leaders can't ignore much longer
The below collection comes directly from the Clallam County Scanner Report Facebook page—specifically, every post since the beginning of the year that included the word “slumped.” These dispatch updates are posted by a concerned resident who listens to the scanner from home and shares what she hears in real time. It’s important to note: this is not a complete record of every person found slumped in Clallam County.
Far from it.
Yes, some of these individuals may have suffered a heart episode, dehydration, or another medical issue. But in a county that pours hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars into “harm reduction,” everyone understands what’s driving the majority of these calls.
This is what happens when leadership insists that the healthiest thing we can do for someone at the lowest moment of their life is to hand them a kit to clean a crack pipe—or a “boofing” kit so drugs can be taken rectally. And what follows is predictable: some take those supplies and end up slumped in tents under the 8th Street Bridge by Tumwater Creek. Others slump in business doorways, at Tree Park, or behind public buildings. Still others get behind the wheel—into two-ton vehicles traveling 25 mph through town or 55 mph on the highway—right before they slump over the steering wheel.
This, we are told, is “reducing harm.”
What follows is not sensationalism—it’s a sobering reminder of what’s happening around us, often quietly, sometimes daily. If you care about public safety, accountability, and the direction of this community, read every report below. Each one tells its own story, but together, they reveal a pattern our county can’t afford to ignore.
I’ve been in the medical field for a number of years and one thing I know these drug and boofing kits help no one and Narcan being handed out like candy.I feel for these people who are in this spiral of drug use, I lost a nephew to a fentanyl overdose so I know of what I speak but when do we say this is enough? It’s becoming an epidemic and local citizens are not safe. These people either need to get help to get clean or they need to go elsewhere. We have a Matt clinic here in Sequim. Why aren’t they taking these people there to get clean? It’s called look the other way by the commissioners until it’s so out of control there’s nothing that we can do about it. Also, all of the repeat offenders who get the idea to come here because they know they’re just gonna get let go.
The commissioners talk about they want to increase tourism, who in the heck would want come here and see all of this and not feel safe!
Also kudos toto Stephen Pelayo for taking a stand!
Drug kits, boofing kits and Narcan are the antithesis of compassion. It is aiding and abetting death by a thousand cuts. The sad truth about the drug addicted is that they have chosen it. When we take the results of one's choices away, we take their learning experience, their right to choose and their opportunity to hit their own bottom and hopefully recover. Nature's way of treating a deer with a broken leg is harsh, but the woods are not packed with deer with broken legs. When you feed pigeons you get more pigeons. Tough love may be harsh, but the addicted and society both ultimately benefit.