Oregon state authorities this week declared a 90-day emergency to rid Portland of fentanyl, the powerful opioid that has sparked a health crisis across the United States. In Multnomah County, where Portland is located, a 533% increase in fatal overdoses has been recorded over the past four years. “Our country and our state have never seen a drug this deadly and addictive, and all are grappling with how to respond,” Governor Tina Kotek acknowledged. The measure is yet another experiment in a city that has explored various new routes in its drug policy without achieving the desired results.
The emergency declaration allows state, county, and city authorities to establish a ground zero in downtown Portland, where the fentanyl emergency has also caused an economic crisis: dozens of businesses have abandoned the core of Oregon's most populous city of 600,000 inhabitants.
The decree provides for the setting up of a command center in Portland, which aims to unify the response to the epidemic and remove bureaucratic hurdles between all levels of government. Fentanyl addicts will be able to find the care they need in one building, regardless of whether this is the need for a bed in a rehab center, an appointment with a doctor, or to access social and food aid programs.
“Individuals who are struggling with fentanyl addiction are worth investing in, fighting for and providing a clear path to recovery,” Kotek said at a press conference. The details of the measure will be released in the coming weeks, but for the time being the local press has reported that the declaration will not require new economic resources.
The measure has been met with some skepticism. “We should all hold our applause until we see what actually happens,” Sharon Meieran, one of the Multnomah County commissioners, told local newspaper The Oregonian. The official asked for the adoption of emergency measures last year to tackle an epidemic that caused 210 deaths between 2018 and 2022 (the most recent year for which statistics are available) and has sparked an increase in crime. “It's taken far too long to decide we have an emergency on our hands, and it certainly won't be over in 90 days,” she added.
At the heart of the debate in Oregon is what the state should do regarding Measure 110, which decriminalized possession of small amounts of hard drugs, including fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamines. The measure was approved in 2020 by 56% of voters in the state, one of the most liberal in terms of drug policy.
The initiative, the first of its kind in the US, sought to change decades of a punitive approach to the battle against drugs, which has led to prison overcrowding and especially targeted low-income Blacks and Latinos. Similar rules have been approved and implemented in several cities in the American West, such as Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Authorities in these cities have limited, if not reversed, such proposals.
This appears to be the fate of Measure 110. Democrats, who have governed Oregon since 1987, recently unveiled a legislative proposal that would modify the spirit of the initiative. If passed, the State Congress would again make possession of small amounts a non-felony offense. The new rule would also allow authorities to confiscate substances and prevent street use. It would also make it easier for prosecutors to pursue traffickers and force addicts into rehab, a show of force that is also under debate in San Francisco. Sixty-three percent of Oregonians support the new law.
Oregon ranks below the national average in fatal illicit drug overdoses with 30 deaths per 100,000 population, while Washington DC tops the list at 94.2, followed by Tennessee (55.4), Delaware (55.1), and Maine (51.6). The national average is 35. Officials in Oregon reported that in 2022, three people died every day from accidental overdoses. Fentanyl, a substance that is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times deadlier than heroin, has exacerbated the crisis.
Politicians appear to have made up their minds about the future of Measure 110. The experiment, however, has been defended by scientists and academics. Last fall, a study by the Grossman School of Medicine at New York University concluded that the legislation did not lead to an increase in overdoses or substance abuse deaths.
The team of physicians investigated 13 states with a similar level of substance use as Oregon. After three years of analysis, the period during which Measure 110 has been in effect, there is no strong evidence that the initiative has caused more deaths. Corey Davis, the head of the investigation, said that accidental overdoses spiked “basically everywhere.”
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