King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn (District 9) hosted the fifth annual Substance Use Recovery Conference, with the theme “Together We Can,” featuring multiple speakers and service providers.

This year’s conference was held June 25 at Green River College in Auburn. According to Dunn, the event highlights pathways and opportunities for people on their journey of recovery. Dunn said the event is also for family and friends of people struggling with substance abuse to know what the local resources are.

Dunn said around 50% of King County residents have someone in their family with substance use issues, but they don’t know where to go for help. Dunn said through the conference, people with family members struggling with addiction can find what kinds of services are available, how to get people into treatment and how it can be paid for.

Apart from Dunn, other sponsors of the event included the King County Council, Seattle and King County Public Health, the King County Recovery Coalition, the King County Department of Community and Human Services, the Muckleshoot Tribe, and Green River College.

The event featured booths from various service providers, including Peer Kent, Greater Seattle Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous, Recovery Alliance, and many more. Dunn said the event features many different approaches to address substance use, and some might disagree with one another, but all of those perspectives are important.

“My view on it is that in order to accomplish meaningful results in reducing addiction and overdose, then we need all of those tools in the toolbox, and then the professionals can decide which set of strategies will work the best,” Dunn said.

The first panel of the day included Dunn, 47th District State Rep. Chris Stearns, Muckleshoot Behavioral Health Clinic Supervisor Carlton Buren and Federal Way Municipal Court Judge David Larson. They spoke on topics including how their lives intersect with recovery, challenges while working with individuals with substance use issues, working with other parts of the substance use and behavioral health systems, and what can be improved to make sure no one falls through the gaps.

Larson stated that when he joined the Federal Way Municipal Court, it was in trouble, and it became very evident that things needed to be done differently.

Larson said now that he’s a judge, the way people struggling with substances intersect with his life is that he meets them when they commit crimes — but he emphasized that not everyone who does drugs commits crimes. Larson said he wants the court to be more patient-based rather than program-based, and he wants to focus on therapeutic measures before punitive measures.

“So a lot of people think we need to be tougher on crime. Some people think we need to be softer on crime. We need to be smarter on crime, and that’s where my passion is. It’s being smarter on the early intervention, trying to make sure that we don’t just kick people to the curb and expect them to have to figure out life,” Larson said.

Larson said one of the biggest issues he sees in his work is the crisis of the human spirit. He said a lot of the people he sees in court don’t believe in themselves, and he can’t make them, but what he can do is be ready to help when people are ready to be helped.

Larson said what they try to do at the court is set people up with peer navigators who can navigate them through the process of receiving substance use treatment as a sentence. Additionally, they’re trying to make resources available for treatment, regardless of whether a person is at a first hearing, in jail or working with probation.

“I believe that we need to really dig deeper to figure out culturally why we’re in this position where people are getting into those modes and (do) a lot of prevention,” Larson said. “Then once somebody’s there, have it so that there’s ways to recognize it early to nip it in the bud.”

Dunn finished the panel speaking about his own experience with getting sober, tying it back to destigmatizing substance use recovery. Dunn said there is a lot of stigma attached to struggling with substance addiction that can impact various parts of one’s life, such as employability, relationships and even housing. Dunn shared that he has struggled with alcohol use, but has now been sober for eight years.

“We got to get past the stigma and, CEOs, sports stars, elected officials, anybody who has a story to share, you know, they don’t have to, but I think it helps if people talk about it, if we can slowly break down the barriers,” Dunn said. “It’s a disease, man. I really believe in the disease model, and people can be comfortable asking for help and not be beat up so badly. We got to stop beating people up for making the right choice to get sober.”

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn, 47th District Rep. Chris Stearns, Muckleshoot Behavioral Health Clinic Supervisor Carlton Buren and Federal Way Municipal Court Judge David Larson. Photo by Joshua Solorzano/Sound Publishing