PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) — Ethan Brown is not an addict but he is feeling the effects of addiction. He lost a friend to a deadly opiate overdose a couple weeks ago. The rampant drug activity in downtown Portland triggers his grief, further disrupting his recent visit to the Portland Art Museum with his toddler, Nova.
“I actually literally had to walk into traffic and stop the cars so that I didn’t have to walk through people consuming,” Brown told KOIN 6 News. “I think this is more than a citywide problem. This is an American issue. This is a worldwide problem.”
Other neighbors who live near the Safeway at SW 10th and Jefferson, a current hotspot in Portland for open drug use and drug dealing, said it’s affecting daily life, like trips to the grocery store, the daycare, and church.
Brown believes this problem needs urgent attention.
“As someone that has peers who are opiate addicts, friends, acquaintances, along with other street drugs, I think that it has to be a two-pronged approach,” he said. “We have to have compassion, we have to provide healthcare, but also the open use of drugs and garbage on the street is a problem for a lot of people.”