Fentanyl is stretching the capacities of a state that has the most progressive drug policies in the country, decriminalizing possession of even the most potent narcotics
The first emergency call came in 90 minutes before midnight on New Year’s Eve at the Deschutes County Jail. An inmate was on the floor in Dorm 600, not breathing and blue.
In many ways, the shocking start to 2023 wasn’t terribly shocking. Bend is in Central Oregon, a sparsely populated expanse of grasslands and high-altitude pine forests where cowboys still move cattle on horseback. But even in the most remote corners of the United States, fentanyl is now everywhere – and stretching the capacities of a state that has the most progressive drug policies in the country, decriminalizing possession of even the most potent narcotics.
The increasing intensity of the fentanyl problem in the more distant reaches of the country has fuelled arguments by the country’s conservatives that a clampdown at the southern border is needed to stanch the flow. In Oregon and Idaho, the fentanyl is “coming from Mexico,” Mr. Gibson said. In Washington, Republican leadership has seized on the crisis to push for more rigorous policing of the southern border.
Ms. Meddock has an allergic reaction to opioids that leaves her face spotted with acne. She is now in treatment, but as she speaks her legs and arms jerk in involuntary movements. “Fentanyl is just really bad,” she says. “It’s really addicting, though.”“We have not seen a heroin-positive patient since March,” said Eric Geisler, a physician who specializes in addictions and who is medical director at Serenity Lane, an Oregon rehab centre.
Inside the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office Adult Jail in Bend, Oregon, on New Year’s Eve, five inmates overdosed at nearly the same time.Eventually he was arrested. He spent 30 days behind bars, a forced sobriety. For the first week, he barely ate or slept, defecating on himself and vomiting frequently. “Audio and visual hallucinations. It was the worst detox I’ve ever had,” he said.But the drug is never far away.
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