Health department workers plan to distribute foil and straws to fentanyl users across Portland starting this month.
The handouts are part of the county’s harm reduction efforts, a strategy that provides drug users with education and supplies like clean needles, pipes and overdose-reversing naloxone.
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“The new part of the program is that we’re adding supplies for people who smoke drugs,” Multnomah County public health director Jessica Guernsey told KOIN 6. “We’ve seen a shift from injection drug use to smoking drug use, so that we can engage people who may not otherwise engage in services.”
Portland’s mayor said the county was “actively enabling” the deadly fentanyl epidemic.
“This misguided approach also results in greater risk to public safety for those who simply want to enjoy our city without walking through a cloud of toxic smoke,” Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, said in a statement.
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Fentanyl is generally smoked rather than injected, so visits to county clinics have dropped more than 60% since 2019, county spokesperson Sarah Dean told Willamette Week, which broke the story.
“Several decades of research have also shown that providing supplies for safer drug use does not increase illegal drug use,” Dean said.
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The county handouts will also include glass pipes and snorting kits.
A staff member holds up a glass pipe used to smoke drugs at St. Ann’s Corner of Harm Reduction in New York City on April 24, 2023. Harm reduction advocates say providing clean smoking and injection supplies saves lives. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
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Oregon decriminalized personal use amounts of all drugs in 2021 after voters approved Measure 110. But the initiative did not set any parameters on what constitutes personal use amounts of fentanyl, which has become the deadliest drug in the state.
A bipartisan bill passed in June creates a misdemeanor for possessing more than 1 gram and less than 5 grams of fentanyl. It is awaiting Gov. Tina Kotek’s signature.
