Fentanyl state of emergency declared for downtown Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, along with Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, on Tuesday declared a fentanyl state of emergency for downtown Portland as drug use, dealing and overdose deaths continue to ravage the city.

The tri-government order seeks to synchronize city, state and county responses to the public health and safety crisis through an incident command structure akin to those used during emergency events such as the coronavirus pandemic or severe weather incidents.

Over the next 90 days, government leaders said they will move to slash bureaucratic red tape and pour additional resources into Portland’s central city, which includes the Central Eastside and Lloyd District neighborhoods east of the Willamette River. The aim, they said, is to expand access to addiction treatment and social services, reduce fatal overdoses and crack down on illegal activity.

“Individuals who are struggling with fentanyl addiction are worth investing in, fighting for and providing a clear path to recovery,” Kotek said during a press conference Tuesday. “(I’m) working side by side with my fellow leaders, the mayor and chair, to make sure that our efforts are focused to the fullest extent possible on addressing this crisis.”

None of the three elected leaders were able to detail specific goals or measurable outcomes they hoped to achieve through the coordinated action. They said those would take shape in the coming weeks.

While a joint emergency declaration on fentanyl fulfills one of the top recommendations that emerged from Kotek’s task force on ways to bolster a beleaguered downtown Portland, its overall success faces obstacles, uncertainty and some skepticism.

Treatment beds and drug sobering services remain in short supply, according to officials and behavioral health advocates, as are outreach workers and police officers that many say are needed to make meaningful progress on the streets.

And although state lawmakers will weigh proposals next month that would ban the public use of fentanyl and other illicit substances and roll back portions of Measure 110, Oregon’s pioneering drug decriminalization law, it’s unclear where the Legislature will ultimately land and whether such suggested remedies will have a measurable impact.

“A 90-day fentanyl emergency in Portland is good, but a permanent fix to Measure 110 is necessary,” said Max Williams, a former Republican state lawmaker who also served as the head of the Oregon Department of Corrections.

Williams is now leading a coalition of civic, political and business leaders pushing to make possession of small amounts of street drugs a crime again in the state.

“Oregon needs to recriminalize possession of fentanyl and other hard drugs as a Class A misdemeanor to help save lives and rescue communities,” he said. A Class A misdemeanor carries up to a year in jail.

Multnomah County Commission Sharon Meieran, who spent months last year urging Vega Pederson to declare a fentanyl state of emergency to no avail, offered a tepid assessment of Tuesday’s announcement.

“We should all hold our applause until we see what actually happens,” she told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “You can’t solve an emergency by issuing a press release. It’s not what leaders say that matters, it’s what we do. It’s taken far too long to decide we have an emergency on our hands, and it certainly won’t be over in 90 days.”

The rise in fentanyl use has upended lives and contributed to a variety of illicit ills across Multnomah County, much of it visibly concentrated in Portland’s urban core.

County officials recorded more than a fivefold increase in fentanyl overdoses between 2018 and 2022, when the potent synthetic opioid claimed the lives of 209 people, Vega Pederson said Tuesday.

In addition to increasing the “visibility and coordination” of outreach workers, Vega Pederson said the county plans to launch a pair of public education campaigns targeting young people and ramp up its distribution and training on how to use Narcan, a drug that can reverse overdoses.

“We know that addiction is a chronic disease,” she said. “We also know that with the right treatment and support, people can and do recover.”

Wheeler struck a note of optimism, praising the commitment to collaboration among the city, county and state, which comes years into the growing crisis.

“This partnership is a must-have,” Wheeler said. “This is exactly the type of coordinated action that’s needed to make a direct impact and lasting difference.”

In a statement Tuesday, Dr. Andy Mendenhall, president and CEO of Central City Concern, agreed.

“We fully support the declaration of an emergency, especially alignment of the work under a task force structure so that we strategically close service gaps,” he said. “Our community has been facing an unprecedented onslaught of fentanyl on our streets which is harming our region, driving acuity and costing too much in human, social and financial costs.”

Oregonian/OregonLive staff writers Maxine Bernstein and Nicole Hayden contributed to this report.