New ordinance allows city to seize drug houses

Grand Coulee city council members don’t like having drug houses in the community, and so approved an ordinance that gives them some teeth in the matter.

Council approved adding to their ordinances the state law on the abatement of drug houses, Revised Code of Washington 7.43, at their Oct. 16 council meeting.

If a house is regularly the scene of police enforcement, drug use, drug dealing, or otherwise, the home could be evacuated and boarded up for a year to effectively remove any ongoing nuisances.

“Any final order of abatement issued under this chapter shall … provide for the immediate closure of the building or unit within a building against its use for any purpose, and for keeping it closed for a period of one year,” the state law reads.

“It would take a superior court issue to do that. We’d have to file to move through the superior court which is a complicated and expensive matter,” Councilmember Tom Poplawski explained. “So this is not something I foresee us doing, but I foresee the need of having it in our ordinances so if that ever were to occur, we are prepared to take care of that to the degree it would take to remedy a habitual residence that continues to allow drug activity to occur.”

Poplawski added that the ordinance “sends a message to our community that we’re not going to tolerate habitual usage of drugs.”

The state statute details the laws related to drug nuisances and the protocol for seizing property. The city would have to follow these laws in the execution of any seizures.