XPost: or.politics, alt.politics.democrats, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.drugs.fentanyl   
   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   Biking in one of the West Coast’s biggest cities, police Officer Donny   
   Mathew spotted something out of the corner of his eye.   
      
   It was a glint, shining off a piece of aluminum foil in the hand of   
   someone on the sidewalk.   
      
   Mathew knew the man was using it to cook. And he knew the substance in the   
   small, makeshift pan was the same potent, intensely addictive, synthetic   
   opioid that has torn through Portland, Oregon, and countless other   
   American communities in recent years, leaving a stunning trail of   
   debilitating addiction and death:   
      
   Fentanyl.   
      
   “He was still actively smoking right when we rolled up,” said Mathew.   
      
   The officer, his feet on the pedals, braked hard into a turn. He quickly   
   dismounted his bike, approached the man and handed over a $100 citation.   
      
   But that wasn’t all. Mathew also handed him a card printed with a phone   
   number that could help erase both his new fine and – in the longer term,   
   civic leaders here hope – the sort of illicit substance abuse that’s   
   escalated on these streets amid the nationwide opioid epidemic.   
      
   “They call this hotline, and they can get the citation paid for,” the   
   officer explained – but only if they agree, with the trained substance   
   abuse counselors on the line, to a medical screening that could serve as a   
   critical gateway to addiction treatment.   
      
   The strategy is in place as the city’s mayor, its county chairperson and   
   the governor – all Democrats – in late January declared at 90-day state of   
   emergency to address the public health and safety crisis driven by   
   fentanyl in Portland’s Central City.   
      
   State lawmakers, meanwhile, overwhelmingly approved a bill this week to   
   reverse a 2020 measure that decriminalized possession of hard substances,   
   including fentanyl, which now awaits approval by the state’s governor.   
      
   Plastic bags of Fentanyl are displayed on a table at the U.S. Customs and   
   Border Protection area at the International Mail Facility at O'Hare   
   International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. November 29, 2017.   
   Picture taken November 29, 2017.   
      
   “Our country and our state have never seen a drug this deadly and   
   addictive, and all are grappling with how to respond,” Gov. Tina Kotek   
   said in a news release in late January, announcing Portland’s fentanyl   
   emergency declaration, vowing “unprecedented collaboration and focused   
   resources” ahead of a “roadmap for next steps.”   
      
   Off the bat, drug dealer arrests have increased, the fire department has   
   launched an overdose rapid response team and outreach workers have begun   
   “saturating” hot spots to help connect people with treatment, recovery and   
   housing services, the city’s Community Safety Division Director Mike Myers   
   said Thursday at a news conference.   
      
   Also expected under the emergency declaration are public health campaigns   
   and a further effort by officials to pool and “use data to identify and   
   respond to acute needs and gaps in service,” then figure out how to fill   
   them quickly – and long after the three-month emergency period expires.   
      
   This formidable undertaking reflects the particular challenges of   
   combatting fentanyl, which is up to 100 times more potent than morphine   
   and very cheap to make and mix with other illicit substances.   
      
   “This addictive behavior is not something to be taken lightly and, not to   
   be like, ‘Oh, just get a job,’ or ‘Just get help,’” said Portland Police   
   Chief Bob Day. “There are demons there that I could never understand.”   
      
   The emergency mission, in fact, is nothing less than a race against a   
   killer, said the head of outreach and treatment group Central City   
   Concern. Fentanyl is “dirt cheap, it’s very dangerous,” Dr. Andy   
   Mendenhall told CNN, and “it’s ubiquitous.”   
      
   ‘An extremely dangerous spike’   
   As public health workers, outreach teams and police unite for the task,   
   they forge ahead under Measure 110, a 2020 law enacted by statewide vote   
   that declared a “health-based approach to addiction and overdose is more   
   effective, humane and cost-effective than criminal punishments.”   
      
   “Essentially what has happened is drugs in Oregon are the same as a   
   traffic ticket,” Portland police Officer David Baer told CNN.   
      
   Meantime, opioid overdose deaths in Oregon have increased from 280 in 2019   
   to 956 in 2022, with 628 recorded so far for last year, state data show.   
   “We’re on an extremely dangerous spike,” Multnomah County Health Director   
   Rachael Banks told CNN.   
      
   Nationwide, the tally of drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl rose   
   almost four-fold over five years through 2021, the US Centers for Disease   
   Control and Prevention reported. And though early research, published in   
   JAMA Psychiatry, suggests no link between Measure 110 and Oregon’s   
   increase in fatal overdoses, critics have blamed the law for the mounting   
   toll.   
      
   “You look at what has happened: open fentanyl, open drugs on the streets,”   
   said Republican state Rep. Jeff Helfrich said, decrying Measure 110 as “an   
   unmitigated disaster.”   
      
   While the governor would not “Monday-morning quarterback” the cause of   
   Portland’s downtown drug crisis and Mayor Ted Wheeler said city officials   
   have “been working on it,” public health and outreach teams said their   
   efforts to beat back fentanyl’s scourge are continually challenged by its   
   extreme addictive quality.   
      
   “It’s one of those things that even though you love your family, even   
   though you love your friends and you want to be an outstanding member of   
   society, all you really think about is your next use or your next high,”   
   said Central City Concern Program Supervisor Dave Crosby, who once was   
   unhoused and addicted to drugs.   
      
   The first need is housing, doctor says   
   Fentanyl’s potency “makes this battle a completely different fight,” said   
   Mendenhall, whose organization annually serves over 14,000 people. That   
   includes medical withdrawal management help for over 3,000 people each   
   year, about half of whom use the drug, he said.   
      
   As for a common trope that fentanyl users should simply exercise personal   
   responsibility and pull themselves out of their downward spiral, the   
   solution is not so simple, Mendenhall said, pointing to myriad personal   
   factors that can lead patients to substance use, including   
   multigenerational poverty, job loss, mental illness, depression and   
   anxiety.   
      
   “The first thing those folks need is shelter or housing in order to get   
   stabilized enough to then potentially benefit from treatment resources,”   
   Mendenhall said. As it stands, though, “there’s simply not enough   
   resources for people who are seeking treatment and recovery.”   
      
   And while declaring a public health and safety emergency is an important   
   step, it is not akin to flipping a switch and unleashing a flow of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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