Portland, OR Overdose Deaths Up by 50% From 2022 Record

pogonici / shutterstock.com
pogonici / shutterstock.com

Portland Police Bureau (PPB)’s release of the drug statistics for the city shows a tremendous spike in drug overdoses in the city. In 2022, they set a record with 158 reported overdose deaths, already they have 85 of them. This represents a 46% spike from 2022 as of this point.

Over the weekend prior, the coroner reported eight suspected overdoses. Of those, six were reported as being related to fentanyl. This drug is incredibly easy to get your hands on, cheap, and easily transported. It’s been reported coming in heavily from the southern border with Mexico. As the illegals storm in and claim asylum, you can guarantee not ever one is thoroughly checked. You can also guarantee many others are simply slipping over the border without checking in.

These drugs are flying straight up the coast through LA, San Francisco, and into Portland & Seattle. Much the same, they are also flowing up and across the country through cities like Phoenix, El Paso, and Dallas. Given the propensity for the Chinese to also be involved in this synthetic opioid, they are also pushing it in through port cities like Seattle, Anchorage, and Portland. Pipelines like this make the drug incredibly cheap.

With the cheap prices come many problems. As many addicts are used to getting drugs that are cut with other substances, when they get something pure, they take too much and overdose. Much the same, some of these cutting agents aren’t clean enough and they end up killing the user. As horrific as this sounds, there is also no denying that this is how it ends up. People see it early, and they see it easily. The problem is how addictive this drug is and how close to the edge of death it takes its users.

Much like the adrenaline junkies we all knew as teenagers (maybe you were one, too), a little out of control and riding the edge of total insanity can be a blast in a controlled environment. This is why people race cars on tracks, or dirt bikes across mudded trails in the back hills. It allows people to feel alive, and to feel their heartbeat race as the adrenaline courses through their veins and hooks them to that moment.

Similarly, these addicts feel the same rush, but instead, their heartbeats often slow. The problem with this is there is no jumping off the gas. No brake pedal to press, or safety gear to protect their melon. Instead, all they have is the people around them, fellow addicts who typically will gladly step over an actively dying person to take the rest of their bag.

Unless they are with someone who is somewhat responsible and with it, nobody is issuing Narcan in time, or keeping it on hand. For paramedics, they are going through Narcan and clothes from OD puke faster than they can count. When people are getting it mixed in with cocaine the effects of the upper and downer are too much and for many, this can trigger intense heart attacks.

As a result, police agencies have been trying to warn addicts through the news and on the beat of bad batches of drugs. These warnings about the drugs however rarely lead them to avoid those batches. Instead, it has the opposite effect, and it sends the demand and the price skyrocketing. It’s a dangerous dance for the police to warn them, and just as dangerous for the addicts to deal with.

What’s most scary is the warning from PPB spokesman Nathan Sheppard. “Keep in mind that the numbers for this year are actually only preliminary because the medical examiner will continue to process toxicology reports that will only increase the number of deaths considered overdoses.”

Unless Portland does something soon, they will be completely overrun. They already had that happen from the occupation protests, and they are still drowning in the homeless encampments they keep playing a shell game with. The rest of the nation needs to take notice of what’s happening here and keep it out of their cities.