Drug crisis devastates small-town Oregon
NEWPORT, Ore. (KOIN) — If it’s a warm, sunny day, it’s tough to find a place prettier than Newport, nestled along Oregon’s central coast.
It’s one of the reasons Sgt. Aaron Bales makes the area his home, and it’s why what happens just under the surface here hits so close to home.
“We’re seeing a dramatic increase in overdoses, and I’m just seeing an overall increase in drug use,” the K9 narcotics officer said during a recent interview with KOIN 6.
The fentanyl and drug crisis hit the community of 10,000 like a punch to the gut.
If the public perception is that areas like Portland are seeing the worst of the drug epidemic, Bales suggests coming to Newport to look around.
“We’ll see empty Narcan in trash cans all the time when we’re serving search warrants and stuff. Very common. Just kind of a sobering thought,” he said.
In just two examples, Newport police shared both dash and body camera footage with KOIN 6.
In the body cam footage, a young man admits to being high on fentanyl after getting arrested at a domestic disturbance.
The dash cam shows the end of a high-speed pursuit where the suspect bolts from his car. Police later learned he was on fentanyl.
In the three years before Measure 110 passed, Newport police handled a total of three overdoses.
In the past three years, the figure is 24 and counting, and that’s only what authorities have been able to firmly log in the small town.
The local hospital says its overdose count linked to narcotics is up more than 60%.
Bales has even responded to overdoses where he knew the person fighting for their life.
“It can be pretty difficult when it’s someone you know,” he says. “Obviously, it’s nothing compared to what the family goes through, but it can be tough.”
When Measure 110 decriminalized those smaller amounts of drugs, local efforts to effectively work drug cases did a 180-degree turn in the wrong direction.
“It’s hard to work up to a delivery case without making any possession cases. In bigger cities with drug teams, I can’t speak to them, but over here in a small community it’s a challenge for us.”
Trying to target dealers, or find the main drug pipeline, becomes harder and harder when there’s no way to basically climb up the pyramid with the help of informants, says Bales.
The larger impact on smaller communities has been noticed some 90 miles away in Newberg at Hazelden Betty Ford, one of the state’s top rehab and recovery facilities.
“You don’t know if that pill you have is going to be the one that kills you or not,” one former patient told KOIN 6.
The woman, who didn’t want to be identified because she’s only 11 months into her recovery, grew up in rural Oregon.
She became addicted to prescription opioids following a surgical procedure.
At her worst, she was lost in a world of pills with others in her drug “orbit” downing anything they could find.
“It [fentanyl] was everywhere. It felt like it was literally everywhere,” she said. “In Yamhill County, there’s so much access to drugs. There’s a lot of opioids on the streets, fentanyl on the streets,” she said.
Gail Porter, one of the facility’s top counselors, says the effects on rural communities are very real.
“In small-town living, there’s not a lot of accessible supports. There’s not a lot of media attention. It doesn’t get talked about,” said Porter.
A one-two punch of COVID-19, plus the unintended consequences of 110, hit smaller communities the hardest.
“Isolation. You have this pandemic. You have this age of the digital world. There’s a removal of contact. If they felt it in big cities, imagine how COVID impacted smaller cities where there’s already not enough support,” said Porter. “Keeping people out of a criminalization space, that’s the goal of 110. I think like any law, rule, there’s some reassessing that needs to happen.”
Back in Lincoln County, Bales gets ready for another day on patrol with his K9 partner “Zoe.”
Newport law enforcement hopes the recent decision in Salem to unwind much of 110 might change the landscape when it comes to getting more drugs off the streets.
“What we’re doing now isn’t working. We’re not intervening in drugs as much as we were. We’re not able to get them at the delivery level, to catch the dealers, and we’re not able to give the help that addicts need,” Bales said.
Rural treatment options often remain limited, although Newport police say Lincoln County has seen some success and progress through its drug court and recovery program.
A recent study tied to OHSU suggests more treatment options for those locked up in rural areas are desperately needed, especially in states like Oregon. The study was actually conducted before 110 was fully enacted.
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