PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland police responded to eight people who overdosed on Monday morning in the Pearl District, near the North Park Blocks. Officers said the people ingested a powder likely laced with fentanyl.
The overdoses happened in the area of Northwest Couch Street and Park Avenue, among the North Park Blocks. Firefighters and paramedics responded around 10 a.m. with ambulances to transport victims. All eight people were given the opioid overdose reversal medication Narcan.
Four people were taken to the hospital. The other four victims refused to be transported, according to police.
According to Rick Graves, spokesman for Portland Fire & Rescue, the people who overdosed were all young — ranging from their late teens to early 20s. He believes that this marks the highest number of overdoses Portland Fire has ever responded to on a single call.
"If something hasn't opened the window to where we are right now, this probably should," Graves said. "I think we're in a pretty significant situation with the use of these chemical substances on the streets that's certainly unhealthy to those that are using it and the community that surrounds it."
Officials believe that the group had purchased a powder that they snorted together, apparently unaware that it contained fentanyl.
Late last week, Portland police sounded the alarm about recent overdoses, many of them fatal, among children and young people. As of Thursday, police had recorded 10 overdoses among juveniles since mid-June, ranging in age from 1 to 17 years old. Half of those overdoses result in deaths.
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In July, KGW reporter Blair Best rode along with firefighters from Portland Fire's Station 1 in downtown, who said that they were being run ragged by overdose calls — responding to more overdose calls than fires. In June alone, the agency said, firefighters from Station 1 responded to 300 overdose calls.
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