He provides no evidence to back up his claim that it's a drug crisis at root. I walk through Seattle every day and there's definitely an aspect of drug use, but

He provides no evidence to back up his claim that it's a drug crisis at root. I walk through Seattle every day and there's definitely an aspect of drug use, but it's many many other things, including people too poor to afford a house here, people with mental issues, along with a lot of drug use. Then I noticed the name of this author, a kind of frustrated conservative who ran for office in Seattle and claimed basically that people were really mean to him - so take his claims with a giant tub of salt. Regardless of the situation, the city is not really coping very well with this challenge. We should just do what Utah did, focus on getting housing for everyone, then you can send treatment to them. I can't quite understand why we can't arrest and hold people to longer sentences who commit crimes dozens of times in Seattle. This is separate from just arresting people for drug use, which never solves anything. Get housing, get enough services, treatment for people and also police and other services. That is how we deal with this. [update, fixed a few typos]