Spokane seeks to limit sale of alcohol, drug paraphernalia downtown

The day after Christmas in Spokane is bleary and wet as passengers young and old wait for their bus at the downtown plaza.

At a shop less than 50 feet away, they can buy something that looks suspiciously like a meth pipe for just a bit over $5.

In a bid to stop some of the drug use and violent crime downtown, Mayor Lisa Brown on Thursday announced proposed legislation that would likely get rid of items being sold at downtown gas stations and convenience stores that are frequently used for illegal drugs, as well as restrict the sale of alcohol at those same stores.

City Hall put forward two ordinances Thursday, both of which would only apply within the boundaries of the downtown police precinct, the borders of which roughly run from Interstate 90 to the south, the Spokane River to the north, Highbridge Park to the west and South Sherman Street to the east. The downtown precinct covers less than 3% of the city but handles more drug-related crimes than the rest of the city combined.

One ordinance proposes reinstating an Alcohol Impact Area downtown, which would restrict the sale of any single-serving of liquor – think plastic bottle shots of Fireball or Malibu rum – and of all alcohol after midnight. It is already illegal for stores to sell alcohol from 2-6 a.m. in Washington state.

These added restrictions previously existed downtown and in the East Central neighborhood, but lapsed in 2022, likely “inadvertently,” according to administration officials. Deputy City Administrator Maggie Yates believes the city made a mistake while updating its code to mirror changes in state law.

In the three years since the restrictions lapsed, alcohol-related incidents involving the police or fire departments have grown 64% in downtown Spokane, according to a news release. Officials also pointed to a study from the International Journal of Drug Police that indicated every additional store where alcohol could be purchased and consumed off-site – anything other than a bar, essentially – was associated with a 16.6% increase in overdoses in the neighborhood.

The city cannot simply reinstate the Alcohol Impact Area, according to Yates.

Before the last one was implemented, the city had to undergo a six-month program that asked stores in the area to voluntarily restrict when alcohol could be sold and get rid of certain products. The city will have to do the same this time around, checking to see if voluntary compliance is working, before it can request that the state Liquor and Cannabis Board allow Spokane to reimplement a mandatory program.

Councilman Paul Dillon said he was inspired to investigate the benefits of an Alcohol Impact Area by concerns of a proposed liquor store being opened next door to a downtown addiction treatment center.

“We’ve seen it be successful in the past, and with a lot of the issues we get around Second and Division … and others, it felt like it was time to revisit this ordinance with the door open to further discussion,” Dillon said.

The proposal would only cover downtown Spokane, as East Central has not reported an increase in problems after the law lapsed, Dillon added. But if the program proves successful, or if the problems are just pushed to other areas of the city, he noted that the city could consider expanding the law.

Meth pipe by any other name

The second ordinance would ban the sale of drug paraphernalia such as glass pipes and foil – grocery stores would be exempt – unless the vendor also provided naloxone at no additional cost at the point of sale. Naloxone is an overdose reversal medication and would have to be purchased by the vendor at their own expense.

Unlike the Alcohol Impact Area, this ordinance doesn’t have precedent anywhere in the country, according to city officials.

It appears likely that this law would, in effect, ban the sale of these products without technically being an outright ban. Naloxone typically costs upward of $20 per dose, a cost that the convenience store would have to eat every time it sells a $5 pipe.

Whether the law gets rid of the paraphernalia or leads to more life-saving medication on the streets, it’s a win, Brown argued.

“This is a creative way to take this on,” she said. “If it leads to more naloxone being available, that’s a good thing.”

Drug paraphernalia is illegal and yet still frequently sold in gas stations, novelty shops and corner stores across the country, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. The objects appear to fall under the same legal grey area as pipes and bongs before the legalization of cannabis in Washington state: As long as an argument could be made that the object could be used for a legal purpose, such as smoking tobacco, they might not legally be drug paraphernalia unless and until they are used as such.

It was under this legal framework that “Love Roses” became commonplace in gas stations across the country, a glass tube holding a paper rose that is sold as a novelty item but easily converted into a pipe to smoke meth and other narcotics.

It is unclear if the law would reduce access to drug smoking materials, however, as it is relatively easy to make a drug pipe out of common household objects, though often at greater risk to the user than those designed for the purpose. A 2017 study showed a decade of crack pipe distribution in Vancouver, British Columbia, likely reduced associated health problems, such as cuts, burns and the spread of infectious diseases. It’s less clear from the available research how retailers, as opposed to controlled harm reduction sites, factor into that equation.

“Certainly, the harm reduction factor is something we’ll be well aware of, and that is absolutely a question I’ve asked myself,” Dillon said. “But we have to try, and I think this does, really, either cut off a major source of the issue, or it provides a helping hand to save a life.”

In a follow-up text, Dillon noted that many of the stores that would be affected are immigrant-owned, and that he wants the city to be “very intentional about outreach and engagement.” He also added that he will be seeking the “sign off” of service providers and public health experts.

The same products are also easily available online, where they are frequently advertised as “oil burners” for incense, and will remain available in stores outside of the downtown police precinct area, though city officials noted the prohibition could be expanded elsewhere if it proves successful.

“We’re driven by the data here, and this is how we’re deciding to focus our efforts,” Yates said. “We can evaluate its application elsewhere in the city if the data supports that.”