Inside Seattle’s open-air drug crisis as fentanyl ravages city and activists bail out alleged criminals
SEATTLE — Seattle’s fentanyl crisis is impossible to hide from public view, with open-air drug use, rising overdose deaths and struggling addicts highlighting the challenges facing city leaders and community advocates.
Hector, an addict, told Fox News Digital that he has been having a "hard time" and that the most common drug used in the area is "Fetty," and cautioned young people to stay away from it.
"The younger people, don't waste their lives on drugs," Hector said. "It's a waste of time, waste of money, waste of life."
We Heart Seattle, an organization founded by Andrea Suarez in the fall of 2020 to clean up public spaces and offer resources to people in need, has tried to help Hector multiple times.
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Suarez told Fox News Digital that she believes the city, which recently elected socialist Mayor Katie Wilson in November, is not doing enough to address the crisis.
"We are the only outreach agency that's actually advocating for people to be held accountable for their own safety and the safety of others," Suarez said. "Because the culture here is very hands-off, live and let live. And drug users are people too, and we're the problem. We caused the trauma because of systemic racism and poverty and capitalism and, like, all this ideology has just taken such a stronghold in Seattle, that it's more of a do-nothing attitude by our politicians and that activists are so loud here that they will even bail people out of jail who are very harmful to the community because they are anti-incarceration of any kind."
In an internal email obtained by Fox News Digital, Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes wrote that "all charges related to drug possession and/or drug use will be diverted from prosecution to the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program," but Wilson denied claims that her administration was changing drug enforcement policy.
Suarez said the city should pursue stronger policies to address the crisis.
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"So if you make that penalty stronger, and you can arrest a person for tenting and using narcotics in a park, suddenly six months or a year in jail may deter you from using in a public space and also accept help," Suarez said.
"As outreach workers, you know, why do we get burned out? Because we can't make a difference without teeth, without law, without law enforcement," she continued. "So better legislation and stiffer penalties around using in these shared spaces and holding the low barrier properties like tiny houses and hotels and permanent supportive housing that allow drug dealers and drug using within their properties, that if they are a nuisance to the community, they should be fined and would force a good neighborhood agreement."
Local outlet KOMO News reported on April 16 that the Syringe Services Program Health Survey found that in 2021, 93% of respondents reported injecting drugs. By 2025, however, 90% said they had smoked drugs in the previous week, while injections had dropped to 44%.
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The Roosevelt News, another local outlet, reported last year that King County recorded 1,067 drug poisoning deaths in 2023 due to fentanyl, a 47% increase from the previous year.
According to the Addictions, Drug, and Alcohol Institute at the University of Washington, opioid overdose death rates in King, Pierce, and Spokane Counties more than quadrupled between 2002-2004 and 2024-2025.
The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported in November that the agency seized roughly 3.4 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl from the two drug trafficking groups targeted in investigations in the Western District of Washington.
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"Hardcore people that were big-time opioid users that ran the streets for years and years, if not decades, will tell you that drugs on top of drugs isn't how you help a drug addict," Suarez said. "Abstinence is how you help if you truly want to help, not thousands of dollars of medication. Often that ends up being a subsidy for the drug addict, only really just to kind of enable them and entrap them into addiction further, which we've seen firsthand as well."
Suarez also stressed that the work of some local left-wing activist groups is making it more difficult to curtail homelessness and crimes committed by those looking for quick cash to get their next fix. She told Fox News Digital that these groups are often against incarceration of any kind, regardless of the alleged crime.
The Northwest Community Bail Fund (NCBF) in Seattle, along with other similar groups, often pays bail for individuals unable to afford it, aiming to reduce the harms of the cash bail system. These groups, highlighted in a CBS News story, claim that cash bail disproportionately affects low-income individuals.
Victims of violent crime have previously complained that these groups have bailed out people that are a danger to the public.
Similar to Hector, Erica is another addict that Suarez and We Heart Seattle have been trying to help.
"So this is a common barrier to accepting services and treatment is Erica doesn't want to be separated from her dog under any circumstances," Suarez said. "So even though we've offered to provide kenneling for her … we will pay for people to get their dogs kenneled while they go to treatment. And she was like, ‘Absolutely not.’ So she's got two amputated fingers, living on a sidewalk, frostbitten nose."
Suarez said that the tearing down of a pavilion and picnicking area at Dr. Jose Rizal Park in Seattle is symbolic of the current drug crisis.
"This pavilion is very, very bittersweet to talk about this, because this pavilion was recently torn down because it was untenable with drug use, fire damage. People were just filleted over here," Suarez said. "It looked like a tombstone. And so the neighbors advocated for it to get demolished as the roof was burnt down. And so this is what's left."
Only stubs of the pavilion and scorched cement remain.
"It really is very symbolic of what has become of our parks in Seattle with this type of a view, children's playgrounds nearby, that drugs and fentanyl use and their civil liberties are really taking precedence and priority, really priority over the civil liberties," Suarez added. "And so this was very, very hard to see this get demolished, just not even a couple months ago."
Fox News Digital reached out to Wilson and King County Public Health for comment but did not immediately receive responses.