Photo: Ford, Brad
The Portland Police Bureau wants to warn the community about a concerning number of juvenile overdoses in recent months. PPB’s Narcotics and Organized Crime (NOC) Unit is investigating all of the cases.
Since mid-June, 10 juveniles have overdosed. Fentanyl is suspected in all but one of the cases. The victims are between the ages of one and 17. Five of the children died.
For context, PPB investigated a total of nine juvenile overdose cases in the last three years combined.
The drug epidemic extends far beyond juveniles. Since the start of 2023, NOC has been alerted to more than 240 overdose cases. That compares to 158 in all of 2022.
As a reminder, the numbers mentioned above are only cases that PPB’s been notified on and they are all ‘suspected’ overdoses until confirmed by the Medical Examiner’s Office.
Source: Portland Police Bureau