Gather Church is doing a tremendous job helping people who are suffering with poverty and people who are suffering with drug addictions in our community.
Our county commissioners should be supporting their efforts. Instead, they are getting in their way.
This letter is specifically about the battle between the Gather Church and the Lewis County commissioners over county Ordinance 1354, which is designed to restrict the needle exchange program that is saving lives in Lewis County.
There have been three different articles published in The Chronicle about this battle. The latest was titled, “Gather Church gets win against Lewis County in needle exchange lawsuit.” This article was published on Jan. 7.
Syringe services for people who inject drugs are enormously effective, but remain underused. Nearly 30 years of research shows that providing testing, counseling and sterile injection supplies to people who inject opioids and other drugs helps prevent transmission of infectious diseases, without increasing drug-related or other crimes. My source for this information is an article from the National Institute on Drug Abuse published on Nov. 25, 2024, titled, “Syringe services for people who inject drugs are enormously effective, but remain underused.”
Ordinance 1354 makes mobile needle exchange programs illegal, restricts the location where needle exchanges can take place and includes several other restrictions. Gather Church filed a lawsuit to repeal this ordinance. They are represented by lawyers from the ACLU.
In their lawsuit, they have claimed the ordinance violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
On Dec. 31, 2025, a federal court ruled Gather Church could resume the mobile needle exchange for the time being. However, the lawsuit continues. This ruling indicates that Gather Church will likely win the lawsuit.
Continuing to fight the lawsuit costs the county money. If, by chance the county wins the lawsuit, more people with drug addictions will die from preventable diseases and the Gather Church will reach fewer people in need.
I believe our county commissioners should repeal ordinance 1354 and stop wasting county money fighting a program that is saving people’s lives. I would like to see the general public show up at county council meetings and demand that they support Gather Church’s tremendous work and stop obstructing them.
Daniel Meekof
Packwood
