Lewis County is poised to enact an ordinance that would effectively enact a failed state bill proposed by Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, at the county level.
This week, the Lewis County Board of Commissioners will vote to set a public hearing for Ordinance 1384, which would add rules to county codes establishing definitions and punishments for child endangerment with an opioid controlled substance.
The motion to set a public hearing for ordinance will appear as a notice item on the agenda during the Lewis County Board of Commissioners Tuesday morning meeting. The hearing is expected to take place during the board of commissioners business meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 25.
Notice items are generally approved without opposition because they often concern setting meetings and not enacting policy.
According to the language of the proposed ordinance, the county is seeking to pass the new county code in response to opioid-related deaths in the county.
“The Lewis County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) has reviewed data published by the Center for Health Statistics at the Washington State Department of Health that demonstrates that opioid controlled substances are attributable to the deaths of at least 150 people in Lewis County since 2022,” reads the first line of the ordinance.
Within the ordinance, the county invokes Washington state law that allows local jurisdictions to enact and enforce appropriate police and sanitary regulations to display the county’s authority in this matter.
The new policy, at least on the surface, resembles a bill proposed by Braun in the state's 2025 legislative session. Senate Bill 5071, which seeks to amend state law to add synthetic opioids and fentanyl to the state's definition of endangerment with a controlled substance, has passed through the Washington state Senate during each of the state's last two legislative sessions with near unanimous support.
However, the bill has repeatedly failed to receive a hearing in the Washington state House of Representatives.
The county ordinance lays out punishments for acts of child endangerment with a controlled substance that do not meet the state's definition of the crime and makes the act a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in a local jail, a fine of up to $1,000 or both.
The ordinance also sets the definition of a controlled substance to include methylfentanyl, heroin, fentanyl, hydrocodone, morphine and others.
