A New Bill From Washington State Lawmakers Would Force Heroin and Opioid Users Into Treatment

by Katie Herzog Spencer Platt / Getty
Washington, like much of the country, is in the midst of a drug epidemic: According the University of Washington’s Alcohol and Drug Institute, there were 132 heroin overdose deaths in King County in 2015; in 2009, there were just 49. Nationwide, overdoses have now surpassed traffic accidents as the leading cause of accidental death, and opioid overdoses killed more than 33,000 people in 2015.A bill proposed in the Washington Senate on Monday would send