WHATCOM COUNTY, WA – (MyBellinghamNow.com) Whatcom County could be on the brink of declaring a fentanyl emergency.

The Whatcom County Council discussed a proposed resolution during its Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday night.

The resolution, drafted by council members Ben Elenbaas and Barry Buchanan, would recommend emergency declarations at a state and federal level in addition to Whatcom County. It also recommends enforcing stricter legal penalties in major fentanyl crimes and prioritizing county staff and finances to address the crisis.

Elenbaas says his talks with people from around the community have cemented how grave the fentanyl crisis is at a local level.

“We are absolutely having kids die from crawling on the floor, picking up a fentanyl pill and swallowing it,” Elenbaas said. “That’s not something that I’m just making up, this is things that have actually happened in Whatcom County.”

Overdose deaths in Whatcom County have increased every year since 2018, reaching a peak of 132 deaths last year according to WhatcomOverdosePrevention.org.

Elenbaas hopes that declaring a fentanyl emergency would fast-track funding for addiction treatment facilities included in the recently passed measure for a new county jail.

“The timeline that we have on getting the jail built and then getting the alternative treatments built is unacceptable to me, so I was hoping that anything we do emergency-wise could possibly open us up funding to move some of that stuff forward,” said Elenbaas.

Council members will meet with a variety of stakeholders in the community to prepare the emergency declaration.

A vote on the resolution is tentatively planned for the county council meeting on March 26.