[cronix]

It also doesn't cover the cost in terms of tying up a major resource: Paramedics, Police and Fire.

Overdoses are at an all time high in Portland. The entity that responds usually gives the person overdosing Narcan, addiction help is then offered for those who recover and 99% of those offered recovery options refuse.

https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2023/08/01/overdose-911-call...

Firefighters (and others) are quitting due to the trauma of responding to these calls over and over and over, with no concrete progress. It takes it's toll mentally to respond these calls which are taking up and increasing percentage of the calls they have to respond to.

https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/the-story/portland-do...

The main failure of this experiment, imho, is the missing component of forcing detox/rehab/etc when x amount of drug related crimes are committed. The measure explicitly said the addict has to seek the help on their own volition. That might work for alcohol and cannabis, but the vast majority of opioid based drugs are so addictive they can't even fathom not getting their next high or life without it.

[kenjackson]

We can make it cover the costs. We just choose not to.

[seanmcdirmid]

Fentanyl is popular because it so cheap (a large Asian country produces it cheaply). If it was taxed anywhere near the damage it causes, it would be too expensive to buy, and smuggling it in via Mexico would still occur.

[kenjackson]

Make other aspects expensive. Drug crimes and related crimes get huge penalties. No medical treatment if you have certain drugs in your system. Make it so the cost of using fentanyl is so high that there is some deterrence.

[coding123]

Half the people in this thread are saying they don't want drug deterrence. IMHO I'm with you though.

[Brusco_RF]

> No medical treatment if you have certain drugs in your system

Have you thought this through? This is beyond evil. Same energy as "no organ transplant if you didn't get the vaccine"

[magicalist]

> Overdoses are at an all time high in Portland.

Also in many many places that aren't Portland, so not sure why that's relevant?

[waldothedog]

Guessing that the comment author lives there, and it’s the major city in the state referenced in the article?

[saurik]

But if overdoses are peaking in a lot of places outside of Oregon than pointing out that overdoses are going up quickly in Portland is being deceptive. (Note that I do not myself have any clue as to what the truth here is, but if magicalist is correct it certainly undermines this part of cronix's argument, which--whether it was intended to or not <- that is kind of irrelevant, as the interpretation is in the readers--seems to be using that as part of the rhetoric.)

[coding123]

What typically happens when something goes recreational in one area is the following:

1) Drug runners drive to Oregon (or wherever - but it's always going to be Oregon first) and pick things up and take them back to their home state.

2) When the first state goes recreational - people expect that things are generally becoming more LAX and eventually it will be allowed there too. And often that LAX expectation is what literally pushes that state to go there too, voters gonna vote.

But I'm definitely guessing the pandemic in general was just a huge event that has pushed probably millions (potentially billions worldwide) of people into general depression.

[100110011001]

They were giving a specific example... It doesn't preclude other places having overdoses...