BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – The City of Bellingham has declared an opioid and synthetic drug crisis.

The Bellingham City Council voted unanimously at their meeting on Monday, June 3, to pass a resolution that recognizes the crisis as one of the highest priorities for the city. It states the city will work with other agencies and community partners to address the cycle of addiction among those affected and establish intervention and recovery services.

Council member Michael Lilliquist said this declaration comes at the middle of the road in the city’s fight against the drug epidemic.

“There’s a long list of things we have been doing, and this serves as sort of like putting a stake in the ground to justify further action,” Lilliquist said at the meeting. “We don’t make this statement to walk away and feel good, we keep doing the work.”

The announcement comes after Mayor Kim Lund issued an executive order in February addressing the fentanyl crisis in downtown Bellingham. Council member Skip Williams introduced the resolution and said Mayor Lund will be an important partner in meeting its objectives.

“It also gives the mayor the foundation to put together a work plan for us on the implementation side,” Williams said. “And we’re more than happy to work with the mayor to get to that point.”

The Whatcom County Council and Lummi Nation have issued similar orders that declared a state of emergency over fentanyl.

Whatcom County has seen a significant increase in overdoses and overdose deaths in every year since 2018, including a nearly 50% increase in deaths from 2022 to 2023 according to whatcomoverdoseprevention.org.