Fentanyl likely cause in latest overdose death
A 30-year-old apparently overdosed in a tent the yard of this home on Case Street in The Dalles and died on Monday, Oct. 3. Authorities said overdoses, mostly from fentanyl, are occurring more frequently.
By Cole Goodwin & Tom Peterson
Another person from The Dalles died from an apparent overdose on Monday, Oct. 3, according to police reports.
While the medical examiner has yet to verify the cause of death, authorities and those that saw the person just prior to their passing said it was likely caused by an overdose of fentanyl.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50-100 times stronger than morphine. Pharmaceutical fentanyl was developed for pain management treatment of cancer but it has quickly found its way to the black market and is used to boost Heroin potency or take its place.
Authorities were called out to east The Dalles on Monday at 12:41 p.m., according to The Dalles Police log.
“(The person) probably left 60 years on the table,” said The Dalles Police Chief Tom Worthy.
More On Fentanyl
“Our most dangerous drug on the streets right now is fentanyl,” Worthy said. “It is proliferating through our community and claiming lives. We know it’s a problem, and we work every day to keep people safe.”
“In the preceding twelve months we’ve had seventeen suspected overdose deaths and officers have directly saved the lives of two others who were overdosing by using Narcan.”
Narcan is a brand-name medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose.
It does not take long to see overdoses popping up in the police logs.
Three overdoses have occurred in the past several weeks.
Two in bathrooms at local businesses.
Worthy said that Fentanyl is the primary suspect in the majority of drug overdoses that have happened in the last twelve months.
“Fentanyl is the number one suspect in overdoses in our area, and then there’s heroin,” said Worthy.
Worthy warned drug users that opioids purchased on the street and not from a pharmacist are likely to contain fentanyl.
“Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, and it’s in almost every pill you can get on the street now. It used to be primarily blue, but now it can come in all colors,” said Worthy.
Greater Oregon Behavioral Health (GOBHI) confirmed this and also warned of counterfit pills made to look like prescriptions such as Oxycontin, Percocet, Vicodin, Xanax or Adderal that instead contain potentially lethal levels of fentanyl.
“Just one pill can kill,” reads the GOBHI website.
Where is it from?
Instead of finished fentanyl being shipped directly to the U.S., most smuggling now takes place via Mexico, according to the Brookings Institution. Like with meth, Mexican criminal groups source fentanyl precursors, and increasingly non-scheduled pre-precursors in China, and then traffic finished fentanyl from Mexico to the U.S.
Changes in the Law
“Having forty pills or more of fentanyl is not criminally unlawful,” said Worthy “It’s a class E violation punishable only by a $100 fine which can be waived if you go to a consultation for drug addiction. It’s the lowest level of violation. We don’t spend a lot of time enforcing it because it’s been deprioritized for us through the legislative process.”
In 2021 Oregon voters, recognizing drug addiction and overdoses as a health crisis in Oregon, passed Measure 110, to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs and the personal use of drugs and to make screening health assessments, treatment and recovery services more readily available to those that need it.
“This law is meant to protect people against prosecution, harassment and criminalization at the hands of the state for using drugs and instead given access to the supports they need,” said Drug Policy Alliance executive director Kassandra Frederique when the law passed.
Following the passing of Measure 110, The Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Advocacy Commission awarded $22.3 million dollars in grants to 70 organizations across Oregon.
Oregon ranks second worst in the nation for addiction and has fallen to last place among states for access to treatment, according to the latest federal data, according to a story in the Medford Mail Tribune from January.
Worthy said that a lack of sufficient treatment services in the region is an issue, but so is a lack of desire to seek help.
Treatment Vs Jail
“There's a need for more treatment services and also a need for people to want to go to treatment. Since the decriminalization of drugs, I’m seeing that there's a longer fall for people to reach that rock bottom that makes them want to get help, because they used to spend the night in jail, and now they don’t,” said Worthy.
Not everyone agrees with that assessment.
New York Times Best Selling Author Johann Hari visited The Dalles High School on Sept. 27, and spoke to the community about the root causes of addiction, depression and anxiety.
Hari wrote Chasing the Scream, a study on addiction and the war on drugs.
Addiction stems from systemic issues such as poor healthcare, lack of affordable housing, lack of fulfilling work, as well as childhood trauma, social isolation, loneliness, and above all a lack of community they can call home, Hari said.
And imposing more pain on addicted individuals to incentivize them to change just doesn't work.
"Pain is the cause of addiction; it actually doesn't make them stop, it makes it worse," said Hari.
Hari compared different societies’ approaches to responding to addiction.
"Here in the United States, we can say, my God, the United States has given the war on drugs a fair shot, we've done it. We've spent a trillion dollars; we've done it for a hundred years; we've imprisoned millions of American citizens; we've destroyed whole neighboring countries like Mexico, Columbia, and El Salvador. And at the end of all that, we can't even keep drugs out of our prisons, where we pay someone to walk around the wall at all times," said Hari. "So, that gives you some sense of how well that's ever gonna work."
“If humiliation stopped people being addicted there wouldn't be a single addict in the world," said Hari. "The people I was speaking to on the streets of Portland yesterday, what humiliation have they not endured? They're literally living in their own shit. What more humiliation could be imposed on them?"
Hari said the key is early intervention, and re-distributing funds that went to prosecution to not just rehab, but also to help people get housing, jobs, healthcare, and prescribing human connection.
“The opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety. It’s connection," said Hari.
"Loneliness is a human instinct," he said. "It's that instinct that tells you to get back to the group because that's where safety is."
"Home is where people notice when you're missing. By that standard how many of us had a home during the pandemic?"
Hari said that according to research when people feel like they have a home, they are much less likely to be addicted.
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Worthy said that something anyone can do to help prevent overdose deaths in their community is to learn how to use naloxone or Narcan to save lives.
“We encourage anyone who has friends or family that use opioids or are in that community to get their hands on some Narcan, which is an anti-opioid medication that saves lives. Our Officers carry it because it is at least a way to keep people alive,” said Worthy.
Oregon law allows lay people to carry and use naloxone on others, allowing lay people to be prepared to save the life of someone in need. Oregonians can ask their healthcare providers or a pharmacist about naloxone.
“Naloxone is safe, easy to get, and easy to use. Carrying naloxone is no different than carrying an EpiPen for someone with allergies,” reads the Oregon.gov website.
