U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas told Salem area leaders on Friday that she’s committed to looking for ways to address the fentanyl overdose and addiction crisis gripping the region and state.
Salinas, D-Oregon, heard one theme repeatedly during a discussion with law enforcement and community leaders at the Salem police station: Local officials want federal dollars to be flexible, so communities can tailor their efforts based on what works best.
“It is an all-hands-on-deck moment where we need services to coordinate with law enforcement, to coordinate with prevention and community service groups,” Salinas told reporters afterwards.
Hundreds of Oregonians die every year of fentanyl overdoses, and the numbers are growing. In Oregon, state lawmakers want to address the addiction crisis when the Legislature convenes on Feb. 5.
Local Salem leaders said it’s key that any federal dollars they receive come without restrictions.
“Obviously, we need money, but we need flexibility with that money,” Salem Mayor Chris Hoy said.
Hoy stressed the urgency of the crisis and the need for prevention and a trained workforce that will help people before they die.
“One pill will kill you,” he said. “That’s just something you have to keep in mind. One pill is too late.”
Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack said fentanyl has grown more accessible and cheaper in the city, with a single pill available for about $1. The pills are parceled out in batches of 100 to 1,000 pills to street level dealers, who often are drug users themselves.
Meanwhile, overdoses have increased.
Marion County District Attorney Paige Clarkson said overdose deaths have soared in the county.
Marion County has five suspected overdose deaths already this year, Clarkson said. That’s an average of one per day.
“We have some real big city problems because of fentanyl,” Clarkson said. “We are looking at quadruple the numbers that we used to see.”
And local leaders said they want to continue to invest in programs like the county’s Law Enforcement-Assisted Diversion initiative. Through that program, officers help people access social services like housing and recovery programs, with help from peers who have faced similar experiences.
Salinas said programs like that can help people find employment as they recover, help others and develop a workforce to meet the needs.
Marion County Sheriff Nicholas Hunter said the solution will require different answers and involvement from throughout the community, not just law enforcement.
“There’s no single one approach that is going to solve this problem,” Hunter said. “We have great partners, but our partners are overwhelmed, just like law enforcement is overwhelmed.”
Hunter said he’s worried about the impact of the crisis on young people who want to try drugs – and the risks they face. Fentanyl is mixed with pain medication that is sold illegally, putting at risk people who don’t realize they are ingesting a lethal drug.
Chris Gibson, executive director of the Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, said it’s crucial to reduce the supply. Oregon law enforcement seized millions of doses in 2023.
Gibson said that collaboration across different areas is key. For example, the Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area has a program that uses anonymized public health data about drug overdoses to look for hotspots and spikes that can inform law enforcement.
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Ben Botkin - Oregon Capital Chronicle
Ben Botkin covers justice, health and social services issues for the Oregon Capital Chronicle. He has been a reporter since 2003, when he drove from his Midwest locale to Idaho for his first journalism job. He has written extensively about politics and state agencies in Idaho, Nevada and Oregon. Most recently, he covered health care and the Oregon Legislature for The Lund Report. Botkin has won multiple journalism awards for his investigative and enterprise reporting, including on education, state budgets and criminal justice.
