It’s hard to escape the fentanyl problem in Oregon. The use of fentanyl is evident on the streets of Portland and provides added fuel to Oregon’s homelessness crisis. The decriminalization of the drug and others is at the heart of a debate in the Oregon Legislature over Measure 110.
The Oregonian/OregonLive recently published two in-depth articles that came at the fentanyl crisis through vastly different lenses. Education reporter Julia Silverman profiled a mother’s attempt to see help for her teenage son, who had suffered three overdoses before he died on fentanyl poisoning. Oregon’s medical autonomy laws prevented her from forcing him in to treatment.
Zane Sparling headed out to Ontario, where the rural town was confronting an addiction and homelessness crisis exacerbated by Oregon’s more lenient laws on drug use than neighboring Idaho’s. The small city was seeing many of the same problems as Oregon’s largest, Portland, hundreds of miles away.
Editor Therese Bottomly speaks with Silverman and Sparling about their reporting and possible solutions.
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