Portland Officer: Fentanyl Nexus ‘Almost Ever-Present’ in Downtown Crime and Fine for Possession Is Lower than Not Wearing a Seat Belt

During an interview with NewsNation on Thursday, Portland police officer David Baer stated that it seems as though “all roads lead to fentanyl” when it comes to crime in the downtown area of the city and stated that while the police are going after dealers, the fine for possession of fentanyl is less than that for failing to wear a seat belt.

Baer said, “It seems like all the crime that we deal with in downtown Portland, all roads lead to fentanyl, whether that’s stolen vehicles, that’s theft, burglaries, and then sometimes street violence. The fentanyl nexus is almost ever-present right now in downtown.”

He added, “Oregon did decriminalize hard drugs. … So, currently, possession of fentanyl and meth and other hard drugs is currently basically the same as a traffic ticket. It’s less than a speeding ticket. It’s actually $10 less than not wearing your seat belt. So, we’re giving out those citations, part of that citation is people receive a drug screening card. They can call the number on the card to access drug treatment and have the fine paid for them.”

Baer further stated that they are “actively targeting dealers and those who are distributing it within the downtown area.” And that it can get overwhelming having to distribute Narcan to the same people over and over again and that he thinks it’s important to distribute Narcan and educate people about fentanyl.

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