Edmonds City Council hears from County Executive on emergency opioid response (05/01/2018 MyEdmondsNews article)

At its regular Tuesday meeting, the Edmonds City Council heard a presentation from Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers and two of his staff on their efforts to implement a strategic approach to confronting the growing opioid crisis in our area.

“Opioid abuse has been with us for a long time,” Somers said, “but in the past few years it has become more acute and shows no signs of waning.”

Somers pointed out how our traditional approach to the problem has been piecemeal, with different agencies working different aspects of the issue without a central coordination. He went on to explain how the county is addressing this by applying the methods of emergency response to the opioid crisis through a holistic multi-agency effort.

“Our guiding principles for this effort are collaboration and coordination for the benefit of all of our residents,” said Somers. “We are a community coming together. To facilitate collaboration, I have directed the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management to partially activate the Emergency Coordination Center to support this effort.”