The 'most hippie' town in Washington state bans drugs after a spike in overdoses trends now
Bellingham, Washington, once labeled the 'most hippie' town in the state, is now attempting to take drastic action to outlaw public drug usage after statewide decriminalization two years ago led to a spike in crime and overdoses.
The progressive city of 92,000, situated about one hour south of the Canadian border, has seen overdoses become so commonplace that one dead man was left on a bench for 12 hours before his body was cleared away.
The city's Fire Department has responded to 223 overdoses - 2.5 overdose calls a day - between January and mid-April of this year. A nearly 100% increase to the rate at which calls came in last year.
Among those who have passed are two teenagers, and a 5-year-old girl, who overdosed on fentanyl in March and was found by authorities foaming at the mouth. The death led to the arrest of the child's parents and another person.
Three Bellingham residents are among six people indicted for trafficking fentanyl in Whatcom County in April, 2023
A haul of cocaine was found inside shipments of bananas at three Safeway stores in Western Washington in 2019 (left). A homeless village behind a supermarket in the city of Bellingham, Washington (right)
City Council Member Edwin Williams recounted hearing about the body of a dead man that was left on a bench in public for 12 hours amid the surge in overdose deaths
City Council Member Edwin Williams told the New York Post that some of the grisly scenes 'shocked me to my core.'
'A man was sitting on the curb in a parking lot with his head bowed, right out in the open … and a police officer told me that he had been dead for at least 12 hours,' he said.
'I have lived here for 30 years, and no, I haven’t seen anything like this,' he continued. 'I would characterize our city as one that is trying and willing to bend over backwards to help and provide people with programs to address either addiction or homelessness.'
In 2018, Bellingham was named 'the most hippie town in Washington' by OnlyInYourState.com. A title local media bragged about at the time that opened the door for deregulation, which has led to crime spikes
