Spokane County Leads 5 Largest Counties In Drug Charges

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) – Among the state’s five biggest counties, Spokane County is the leader in the filing of felony drug possession charges.

An analysis by The Spokesman-Review finds that Spokane County files more drug possession charges than King, Pierce, Snohomish or Clark counties.

Many of the other counties have moved toward decriminalizing felony drug possession in favor of diversion programs aimed at swapping jail cells for drug and mental health treatment.

The newspaper says per capita, Spokane County filed nearly eight times as many drug possession charges as King County last year, and was nearly double the rate of Pierce, Clark and Snohomish counties.

Spokane County also led the state in actual felony drug charges filed by its prosecutor’s office, at 1,281 last year. That dwarfed much larger King County’s 722 filings.