Oregon’s Governor Tina Kotek revealed a plan for the state’s police force to crack down on fentanyl in the streets. The drug has been massively spreading at rates higher than ever before. Portland in particular has fallen victim to extremely common fentanyl sales, so in particular many resources are set to go there. State troopers are expected to deploy out to Portland very soon and will work in conjunction with the city’s police force to establish strength and control over the situation, with expectations to ideally scare off whatever fentanyl dealers they do not manage to actually arrest.

Fentanyl, which is a highly powerful synthetic opioid, has grown in popularity for illegal recreational drug use.

As an opioid, when taken out of anything other than genuine medical necessity, fentanyl can be highly dangerous to the body. Even when taken for medical reasons, the drug is extremely potent and risky to use. It is also highly addictive. The spread of the drug around all of Oregon, especially Portland, is cause for great concern for Governor Kotek, which is why she is deploying state troopers. In a statement from the Governor, she said “We want to make it uncomfortable for people to be selling fentanyl in the central city.”

Very few details have been made public regarding the governor’s plan. For example, it is presently unknown when exactly the troops will arrive in Portland, it is unknown how many officers will arrive, and the strategy that they plan to use is unknown as well. This has some pros and cons, such as how the element of surprise will likely work in their favor. However, the lack of details has caused some people to be extremely concerned about the nature of deploying start troopers to just one city.

There are only about 500 troopers meant to serve the entire state and now an unknown number of them will instead concentrate on one city.

The estimate of the number of troopers to be sent to the city is around 100. The mayor of Portland sent a request letter to the state calling for state assistance, one resource being 96 state troopers. Governor Kotek did say she cannot send that many, but with so few details it is hard to know how they should prepare.