Overdoses in Oregon are skyrocketing, driven largely by fentanyl. (Getty Images)
Oregon lawmakers are gathered in Salem, determined to address the state’s drug crisis.
Both parties appear poised to crack down – at least to some extent – on drug possession, which was decriminalized with the 2020 passage of Measure 110. And Democrats hope to remove some barriers for people in treatment while expanding treatment options, including clinics that offer an integrated approach to behavioral health, primary care and addiction treatment.
That expansion likely would include the use of medication to treat opioid disorders, Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Portland and member of the joint addiction committee, told the Capital Chronicle. Medication-assisted treatment, or MAT, relies on prescription drugs that replace opioids in the body, or block them, to keep withdrawal symptoms at bay and allow the person to become stable. The most powerful and most effective of the drugs is methadone, long considered the gold standard for treatment, John McIlveen, the state opioid treatment authority at the Oregon Health Authority, told the Capital Chronicle.