The Tacoma-Pierce County Opioid Task Force worked for years to address the opioid crisis. But in June it announced that it was being disbanded. Local officials claim it is a natural time to end the task force, but some addiction advocates have cast doubt on the decision.
The Opioid Task Force was launched in 2018 as a regional response to the opioid crisis and managed by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. It was a joint effort between Pierce County, the City of Tacoma, the health department and the nonprofit Elevate Health. It was largely made up of volunteers, including behavioral health specialists, who were supported by two full-time staff.
“The Opioid Task Force helped Pierce County lay the groundwork for fighting the opioid crisis,” Pierce County Councilmember Jani Hitchen said in a news release. “Bringing relief to those struggling is our top priority, and we’ll build on the recent successes we’ve seen”.
The task force worked to bring awareness to the opioid epidemic, increase access to treatment and reduce stigma. It held meetings to help addiction service providers strategize. Volunteers distributed naloxone, the overdose reversal medication, and shared other resources. The group also advised the county on how to use approximately $55 million in opioid settlement funds following multiple lawsuits filed by the state against pharmaceutical and distribution companies.
Pierce County health officials point to recent drops in overdose deaths, along with opioid-related emergency calls and hospital visits, as signs that the task force is no longer needed. Instead, the health department, which managed the task force, said it is shifting to a coordinated behavioral health approach.
“The county has made strides in eliminating opioid overdoses and getting people the help they need,” Chantell Harmon Reed, the department’s director of public health, said in a news release. “We’re building on the amazing work of the Opioid Task Force. Opioid addiction awareness and care are part of our everyday work.”
According to the health department, overdose deaths in Pierce County were down in the last quarter of 2025, with 63 drug-related deaths recorded. The department said that is the lowest since the first quarter of 2020. But overall opioid-related deaths were actually up last year.
Preliminary state data shows more than 300 people died from an opioid overdose in Pierce County in 2025. That is an increase of approximately 7% from the year before. Pierce County health officials said the increase in deaths was due to a spike at the beginning of 2025, and that the number of deaths have since slowed.
Elizabeth Allen, the health department’s behavioral and emotional health program manager, told KNKX that the task force’s end was inevitable.
“We completed our work in terms of what our goals were,” she said. “We wanted that collaborative coordinated effort. We wanted to show awareness and we were very successful.”
According to a health department spokesperson, in the last seven years, the task force received around $1.2 million from Pierce County and Tacoma. The city stopped funding it in 2023. This money went towards paying staff, holding events such as an annual opioid summit and other costs.
Margo Burnison, behavioral health manager for Pierce County Human Services, explained that instead of continuing to invest in the task force, county officials decided to prioritize other initiatives.
“It seemed like a logical time to take those funds that we were using towards the opioid task force and actually put them into some of the services that the task force recommended,” she said.
According to Brunison, the county is focusing more on funding direct addiction services, such as its mobile opioid treatment program. The health department will continue to offer addiction services at its walk-in clinic six days a week as well as behavioral health services, and it is expanding its street medicine team.
Still, task force members are frustrated that the initiative is being abandoned. Joe Contris is a behavioral health therapist who served on the council for years.
“None of us are happy about this and are quite dismayed and actually at some, at some level, are quite disgusted,” he said.
Even if overdose deaths are declining, Contris does not understand why the task force should be disbanded just as they were gaining momentum. In a lot of ways, he said, the group felt stronger than ever.
Contris co-chaired the committee that helped people access treatment. He said a huge part of what they did involved creating space for addiction service providers to regularly meet, get to know one another and brainstorm how to overcome challenges. This, he said, made it easier for care providers in Pierce County to help patients find treatment that best suited their needs.
“Partnership,” Contris said, “And just coordinated approach, coordinated conversations, coordinated efforts. All those things are lost now.”
Contris described the final committee meeting in June as "bitter.”
Alli Toren also served on the task force and chaired its anti-stigma committee.
“The Opioid Task Force was a very unique and wonderful space for people to learn about substance use disorder and all the things that go with it,” they said. Toren described members worked passionately and were dedicated to “helping people not just survive, but thrive.”
Paul LaKosky is the executive director of the Dave Purchase Project, which operates the Tacoma Needle Exchange. He served on the task force when it first began, but ended up leaving the initiative.
LaKosky said the decision to shut down the task force should not be based on a dip in overdose deaths or the other data points the health department has highlighted. There are a number of things that could contribute to a decline, such as naloxone becoming much more accessible.
“You have to look more deeply into the data,” he said. “It’s not as easy as saying deaths are down so we’re going to start rolling back.”
Without such a group, he said, officials could lose focus of substance use issues.
“When you disband the opioid task force there’s kind of this unwritten belief that it doesn’t warrant special attention anymore,” LaKosky said.
Pierce County leaders say addressing the opioid crisis is still a priority. Some Opioid Task Force members are now trying to figure out how they can continue their work without the support of the county.
