This story is part of a series examining the drug and homelessness crisis plaguing Oregon.read part 1 and part 2.
McMINNVILLE, Ore. — A street on the outskirts of town, bordered by fields and the Yamhill River beyond, is lined with run-down RVs, nondescript sedans, shopping carts, bicycles, tents and tarps. Among the piles of trash is a lonely trash can with its lid left open.
Deputies recently responded to three overdoses in one day at the camp. Another overdose call sent them to a forestry road in the Coast Mountains, a 35-minute drive from the sheriff’s office. Too long to reach the person in time.
“There’s nothing out there,” Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott said. “They weren’t camping. They weren’t living there. They were just there to smoke drugs.”
Many encampments in Yamhill County are located near McMinnville. The city of about 35,000 people is one of only a few in the region offering services for homeless people and drug users seeking treatment for addiction. (Hannah Rae Lambert/Fox News Digital)
Crisis in the Northwest: After decades of progressive politics, are voters “above the tipping point”?
The homelessness and fentanyl crisis is impacting every corner of Oregon, but many people living outside the Portland metropolitan area feel ignored by the state’s policymakers.
“It’s like playing whack-a-mole given the many challenges that counties face,” said Daniel Bethel, president of the Oregon Association of Counties. From homelessness and addiction to affordability and workforce woes, rural areas are being “left out” of the conversation, she said.
Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek, who took office in January 2023, has made revitalizing downtown Portland one of her top priorities. Her task force recently released her 10 recommendations for cleaning up the city and restoring its economic vitality. These include declaring a fentanyl emergency, beefing up police, expanding capacity at homeless shelters, removing trash and graffiti, and suspending new taxes in Portland for three years. Portland is the second-highest tax city in the country after New York, Kotek said. city.
Portland’s success is good for the state’s overall economy.
Rose City leaders welcome the governor’s idea.
“Governor Kotek knows what previous governors have known: Portland is the economic capital of our state,” said Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan. “What happens to Portland is what happens to the rest of the state.”
And things aren’t going well in Portland or across the state.
Republican Rep. Lucetta Elmer said whether she drives past graffiti and tents on Interstate 5 in Portland or past zombie RVs in Yamhill County, “we are on the brink.” “But it’s easy to see.”
Most counties vote conservative, but urban liberals consistently outnumber them. Voters in 30 of the state’s 36 counties opposed gun control measures deemed America’s “most extreme” by the ultimately successful NRA, now blocked by constitutional challenges. has been done. In 2020, a minority in the county opposed Measure 110, the state’s landmark drug decriminalization law, now at risk of repeal.
In a poll conducted last year by DHM Research, only 29% of Oregonians said the state was heading in the right direction, dropping to 9% of Republicans.
Portland leaders complain that city has allowed stricter rules on tobacco than on fentanyl: ‘That’s outrageous’
“Drugs are rampant and public drug use happens every day,” Elmer said. “There’s extreme homelessness and trash everywhere. It’s not only unsafe, it’s unsightly, it’s also heartbreaking because our fellow citizens are literally dying.”
In his inaugural address, Kotek vowed to reduce the divide between urban and rural areas. In September, she signed a bill earmarking more than $26 million to expand shelter capacity in 26 rural counties. She also visited every county in Oregon in her first year in office, and at an August press conference she said “everybody cares about what’s going on in Portland.” Ta.
“They know that Portland’s success is good for the state’s overall economy. Portland is a gateway for tourists,” she says. “So this focus will allow us to move forward and we believe it will benefit the entire metro region, the entire city and the entire state.”
Kotek’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
President Biden introduces then-gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek during an event at SEIU Local 49 on October 14, 2022 in Portland, Oregon. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Her critics remain unmoved.
Elmer hosted a roundtable in December to hear from leaders in the district, which includes much of Yamhill County. Overwhelmingly, they said they wanted to see Kotek’s 10-point plan move beyond Portland, she said.
“They want it to go throughout the state of Oregon,” she said. “They’re crying out for it. We need to see things change.”
And what worked in Portland may not work in counties where there are more cows than people.
“The commissioners are frustrated,” Bethell said. “We look forward to our turn at the table.”
Rural Oregon struggles to stem fentanyl crisis:
See more FOX News Digital Originals here
Sheriff Elliott grew up in Yamhill County and has worked in law enforcement for the county for over 20 years. Although it’s not the most rural part of the state (some counties have fewer than one resident per square mile), in the event of an emergency, your nearest deputy is only a minute or an hour away. It’s a place with potential. A place with vineyards and vegetable gardens. The acronym BLM typically refers to land owned by the federal government rather than a social justice movement.
As Elliott drives along Highway 18, he sees dormant winter farmland, occasional sawmills, logs piled high and finished planks tied to flatbeds. Ta.
Yamhill County is home to heavily forested hills and vast vineyards. His two largest cities, McMinnville and Newburgh, are the wine producing centers of Oregon. (George Rose/Getty Images)
Drugs, primarily methamphetamine, have always been a problem, he said. Deputies then began finding people cutting up and chewing fentanyl painkillers. Elliott recalled arresting a man on suspicion of drunk driving with a fentanyl painkiller taped to his chest.
But that was nothing compared to what happened after the “blues” (counterfeit drugs) showed up. The number of fentanyl pills seized by police in Oregon and Idaho jumped from about 100,000 in 2019 to more than 3.6 million last year, according to preliminary data from the Highly Effective Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). Police participating in HIDTA reported finding more than 180 kg (nearly 400 pounds) of fentanyl powder in 2023.
“Fentanyl is connected to so much of what we do every day,” Elliott said. “Whether it’s in response to robbery or theft, it’s also the discovery that it’s people who are supporting the habit, or people who are suffering from overdose.”
All members of Congress carry naloxone, which helps prevent overdoses, and use it regularly, like the man who caused the accident while smoking foil while driving. After being resuscitated by the sheriff’s office, he fled and was eventually arrested, but he began to overdose again in the back of his patrol car. Jail officials administered Narcan three times to the man, who began overdosing shortly after being booked.
Last year, someone burned suspected fentanyl in a Willamina High School bathroom. A deputy and at least one student who went to investigate the odor felt sick and went to the hospital. Mr Elmer said the incident was a “wake-up call” for the small, close-knit community.
The drug does not differentiate between users in downtown Portland and users in rural areas of the county.
Support for drug decriminalization has collapsed. In 2020, 58% of voters approved Measure 110; poll show Currently, up to 74% of respondents support recriminalizing possession of fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamines and making treatment mandatory rather than optional as an alternative to incarceration.
It’s difficult to determine how much State Law 110 contributed to the state’s addiction crisis, but Elliott said decriminalization is one of law enforcement’s best tools to force people into treatment. He said one drug court was robbed.
Numerous surveys show that Oregonians support recriminalizing hard drugs and making treatment mandatory rather than optional to avoid prison time. (Ramiro Vargas/Fox News Digital)
Voter remorse: Blue State survey finds majority want to recriminalize drugs: ‘We made a big mistake’
He said, “Even though simple possession of methamphetamine was a felony, these people did not end up with a felony conviction because they went through drug court and complied with the provisions of supervision.” Stated.
Measure 110 also diverted hundreds of millions of dollars in marijuana tax revenue to pay for addiction services. But decriminalization took effect in February 2021 before that money could be utilized. Three years later, there is still a lack of proper detox and treatment facilities, even in urban centers like Portland. Resources are spread even more thinly in rural areas.
“One of the biggest complaints I hear is that there’s nothing here for people affected by drugs,” Elliott said. “For people living in rural areas of the county, when it’s raining and cold outside and there’s no reliable transportation, the distances are often too great to take advantage of these services.”
Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott works in a rural area of Oregon where fentanyl is prevalent. He said it serves as a “nexus” for many crime and emergency calls, which his deputies respond to. (Hannah Rae Lambert/Fox News Digital)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are trying to recriminalize drug possession, but they can’t agree on how harshly to punish drug users who refuse treatment. Many local leaders want to pass legislation that would allow cities to ban drug use in public, similar to how they treat alcohol and marijuana.
Elliott hopes these policies will be “good not just for the Portland metropolitan area, but for the entire state.”
“This drug does not differentiate between users in downtown Portland and users in rural areas of the county,” Elliott said. “We’re dealing with the same problems they are. It just looks a little different when you’re spread out over a large area.”
