A Lewis County church has filed a federal lawsuit challenging restrictions on syringe services, arguing the county’s 2024 ordinance unlawfully limits access to lifesaving health care and discriminates against people with disabilities.
Gather Church, a Centralia-based congregation that has operated Lewis County’s only syringe services program (SSP) since 2019, filed the complaint Monday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington with support from the ACLU of Washington.
The church says its mobile SSP once reached more than 400 people monthly across the county, distributing about 20,000 sterile syringes and providing HIV and hepatitis C testing, overdose reversal medication, wound care, and referrals to addiction treatment.
But in April 2024, the county enacted Ordinance 1354, which banned mobile SSPs, prohibited operations in residential areas or near schools, parks, and libraries, and barred distribution of fentanyl test kits, sterile water, and other supplies.
The ordinance also requires one-to-one syringe exchanges and restricts who can volunteer for SSPs.
Gather argues these rules conflict with Washington Department of Health grants that specifically require mobile outreach, test kit distribution, and services targeted at unhoused residents.
To avoid civil and criminal penalties, the church shut down its mobile program, leaving only its Centralia site, which now serves about 11 patients a month — down from hundreds before the ordinance.
The lawsuit claims the ordinance violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, the Washington Constitution’s free exercise protections, and state anti-discrimination laws.
It contends that people with substance use disorder, mobility impairments, and mental health disabilities can no longer access services essential to their survival and recovery.
According to the filing, syringe service programs are evidence-based, do not increase crime or drug use, and often serve as entry points to treatment.
The church says that before the ordinance, an average of six people a month entered its medication-assisted treatment program through SSP referrals. That number has since dropped to two.
Lewis County Commissioner Sean Swope has previously described syringe programs as “legalized enablement,” according to the complaint.
Gather and the ACLU are asking the court to strike down the ordinance and block its enforcement so the church can resume its mobile outreach and distribute supplies as before.
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