Anticipated heroin, meth expansion throws Oregon big challenges

Prospects for public safety, particularly in a few of Oregon's rural counties, became unreadable this week as a state task force predicted that Mexican drug trafficking organizations would not only continue to flourish in Oregon but expand by importing and distributing more heroin...

...Oregon already ranks fourth in the United States in the percentage of residents using illegal drugs, and the report, Zaitz wrote, also warns "the number of young users will likely grow as abuse of prescription opioids continues to serve as a gateway to heroin use." In 2013, pharmacists filled 1.9 million prescriptions for hydrocodone and another 1.1 million prescriptions for oxycodone – together accounting for 43 percent of all prescription drugs in Oregon.

...Heroin, by contrast, is easier to smuggle and has a far wider profit margin. Of Mexico sources supplying the trafficking organizations, Bovett was plain: "They've really ramped up heroin production."

...No schools or employment or business discussion can go anywhere if any of our counties is overrun by opportunistic, dangerous drug-trafficking organizations.