Oregon officials declared a 90-day state of emergency in the city of Portland on Tuesday to address the fentanyl crisis that sprang up in the wake of the state’s decriminalization of hard drug use. The new emergency measures, authorized via an executive order from Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, will coordinate a “tri-government” (state, county, and city) response to “assist” fentanyl users encountered on the streets of Portland.
According to Governor Kotek’s emergency order, “development of a system to efficiently track and coordinate existing resources to assist people impacted by fentanyl use should be completed in not more than 90 days.”
Learn the benefits of becoming a Valuetainment Member and subscribe today!
The order continued:
A command center will be stood up in the central city where state, county and city employees will convene to coordinate strategies and response efforts. The Command Center will serve to refocus existing resources. It will also share and publicly report data on the impacts of fentanyl in downtown, use data to identify and respond to acute needs and gaps in service, identify any specific resources necessary to address gaps, and establish a system to coordinate that can be sustained beyond the 90-day startup period.
“Our country and our state have never seen a drug this deadly addictive, and all are grappling with how to respond,” said Kotek at a press conference announcing the order.
Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, both of whom appeared at the conference alongside the governor, issued similar emergency declarations. Each leader pledged to coordinate their resources to “tackle the crisis” in a similar fashion to severe weather events or the COVID pandemic.
The order notably does not provide extra funding for the response but rather allows the current budgets to be more easily rearranged.
For the duration of the emergency order, fentanyl addicts who encounter first responders and law enforcement will be triaged at the new command center, where they will be given access to addiction treatments and social services, hopefully preventing further additions to Portland’s skyrocketing number of overdose deaths.
Related: Joe Biden, Xi Jinping to Announce Joint Fentanyl Crackdown During APEC Summit
In 2020, the state of Oregon attempted what it billed as a more “humane” response to drug use, passing Measure 110 to decriminalize consumption of substances up to and including heroin and methamphetamine. Under the new standards, police only handed out citations for drug use, the fines for which would be waived if the recipient took the (fully optional) step of contacting rehab services.
While the measure hoped to make addiction recovery more common, it had the exact opposite effect, and overdose deaths shot up by 533 percent in Multnomah County between 2018 and 2022. Nearly 1,000 deaths were reported in 2022 alone.
None of the Oregon leaders who announced the emergency order could not provide specific goals or outline measurable outcomes for what the coordinated effort is meant to achieve, but they promised that more details will be made available in the coming weeks.
Governor Kotek’s full emergency executive order can be read below.
Text-Only-Gov-EXECUTIVE-ORDER-FENTANYLDownload
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
Add comment