2024-02-21 14:37:50
Oregon’s fentanyl overdose rate has surged by a whopping 1,530 percent over the last few years, making the state home to the most dramatic increase rate in the nation.
A new FOX12 report using data obtained from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) exposed the shocking statistics, revealing that 1,268 deaths occurred as a result of the fatal drug between September 2019 and September 2023.
The drastic increase came with the 2020 passing of Measure 110, a drug decriminalization law that most Oregonians now believe to be a grave mistake after seeing the spike in deaths.
A person smokes a foil of fentanyl on Park Avenue following the decriminalization of all drugs in downtown Portland, Oregon on January 23, 2024. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
The state with the second-largest percentage increase is Oklahoma, with health officials anticipating a total of 717 deaths from 2023 to be linked to fentanyl, compared to 67 just five years earlier.
“States along the East Coast saw some of the lowest increases,” the local outlet reported.
Oregon’s fentanyl problem led Democrat officials — Democrat Gov. Tina Kotek, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler — to declare a 90-day state of emergency in Portland earlier in February.
Local leaders in Oregon’s more rural areas are begging for state help to curb the issue, which has spread far beyond the metropolitan areas.
A person lies on the street in the Old Town Chinatown neighborhood in downtown Portland, Oregon, on January 25, 2024. (PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
“We have a crisis on our hands, and that’s easy to see,” said State Rep. Lucetta Elmer (R), whose district is located about an hour south of Portland.
“We have drugs that are just rampant, and we’re seeing public drug use daily,” she continued in a recent interview with Fox News. “Extreme homelessness and garbage everywhere. It’s unsafe, and it’s unsightly, but it’s also heartbreaking because, literally, our fellow citizens are dying.”
