The opioid crisis in Snohomish County

A message from Sheriff Trenary

We have created this page to help our communities better understand the opioid crisis, the impact it has on our neighborhoods, and how your Sheriff’s Office is working to address it.

The opioid crisis is not new to Snohomish County. Ten years ago when I was serving as the Chief of Stanwood, we were beginning to see the effects heroin and abuse of prescription pills were making on our community.  High school students were overdosing and dying. Fathers with good jobs were losing everything to feed an addiction.  As bad as it was then, I could never have predicted was how much worse it was going to get.

Although Snohomish County comprises only 10% of the state's population, we now account for more than 18% of the heroin-related deaths statewide.  From 2011 to 2013, approximately 1 out of every 5 heroin deaths in the state occurred in Snohomish County and in 2013 alone, heroin and prescription opioid overdoses represented two-thirds of the 130 accidental overdose deaths in the county.

We cannot arrest our way of the opioid epidemic.  In the end, it is takes leadership, collaborative partnership building, communication, accountability and trust to overcome Snohomish County’s opioid epidemic and the terrible impact it has on our communities.

-Sheriff Ty Trenary