An Invitation for OR Docs from the Dept. of Justice

[101N]

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is co-sponsoring a round table discussion on the opioid and heroine epidemic in Oregon. We are hoping to turn this into a regular discussion between medical professionals and law enforcement to come up with a productive solution to this problem.

Please feel free to call me regarding the invitation below. We are looking for the input of medical professionals, so please tell any of your colleagues about this opportunity and have them call me if they are interested.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Dori Olivarra
Department of Justice
United States Attorney’s Office
District of Oregon
1000 SW Third Avenue, Suite 600
Portland, Oregon 97204
503-727-1055
[email protected]

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[Ligament]

What are they paying physicians that attend the meeting?

 

[101N]

Nuttin. A pill mill was recently shut down in Portland. Evidently, that is what stimulated
the meeting.

 

[SeniorWrangler]

It sounds like a good opportunity to educate The Man about the difference between legit pain care and pill mills.

 

[101N]

And vice versa

 

[101N]

OREGON
DEA agent tries to manage fallout from the opioid epidemic


By Andrew Selsky

The Associated Press

OCT. 13, 2016

A black zippered bag, looking like a travel toiletry kit, that Strahm keeps close at hand contains Narcan, which, when administered through the nose, can revive someone who has overdosed.

“If I see a kid collapse in front of me, I want to be able to give him a second chance,” Strahm said in an interview with The Associated Press last week.

Overdoses from prescription opioid pain relievers and heroin killed more than 28,000 people in the United States in 2014, a record number, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 1999, the number of opioid overdose deaths has nearly quadrupled.

In Oregon, opioid overdose deaths reached 6.8 per 100,000 population in 2014, the Oregon Health Authority said, a more than threefold increase from 2000.

The flood of opioid pills comes from unscrupulous pain-management clinics and doctors who overprescribe for profits, Strahm said.

Concurrent with the increase in overdoses is a sharp rise in Mexico of poppy cultivation. Acting DEA Deputy Administrator Jack Riley told a U.S. Senate subcommittee on May 26 that cultivation increased 160 percent between 2013 and 2015, with growing of the heroin-producing crop centered primarily in the state of Guerrero and the “Golden Triangle,” which includes the states of Chihuahua, Sinaloa and Durango.

Most of the heroin in Oregon — black tar and brown powdered — comes from Mexico via California, Strahm said. Much of it is distributed in Oregon by residents with family ties to villages in Mexico, often the same villages, said Strahm, who was raised near Portland and who previously served in the DEA’s offices in Houston and Jacksonville.

In the interview, Strahm declined to comment on whether a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border could cause a drop in heroin smuggling. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has vowed to build a border wall if he wins.

“I am apolitical, and I don’t comment on politics,” Strahm said. “We have to attack this epidemic before we lose more people than we’re currently losing to overdoses.”

Strahm has agents trying to curtail drug trafficking, and he’s ready to personally intervene to save a user. “It certainly goes with me most places,” he said.

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