Sometimes, it doesn’t take much to find yourself stopped in your tracks and at a loss for words.Sometimes, it can be as simple as a number.

A number such as this one:

1,530%

That’s the percentage growth in yearly overdose deaths attributed to fentanyl in Oregon over the past five years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That statistic leads to another number:

As in, Oregon’s increase in fentanyl deaths over the stretch between 2019 and 2023 puts the state atop the list for those recorded across America.

It’s not an aberration. We also recorded the highest percentage increase between 2022 and 2023, suggesting that this is a trend that we know all too well is getting worse.

This, of course, isn’t news to anyone in Deschutes County. Perhaps there’s cold comfort to be found in the fact that while the fentanyl situation in Central Oregon is severe, it is reflective of that across the state as a whole. That, however, is the thinnest of silver linings.

77 / 1,268

The number on the left, according to the CDC, represents the known overdose deaths in Oregon for the 12-month period ending in September of 2019. The number on the right is for the same category for the 12-month period ending September 2023.

And that, of course, is just the deaths.

“The increase,” Dr. Tom Jeanne, an epidemiologist for the Oregon Health Authority, told The Oregonian in reaction to the release of the figures from the CDC, “is likely to keep going. I can’t predict how soon it’ll start to slow down.”

Which leads us, inevitably, to another number:

110

The statewide measure loosening legal ramifications for the use of certain drugs is now on center stage in Salem, as the Oregon Legislature tries to come to some sort of agreement as to how to amend the law — which fell dramatically out of favor with the public after proving unable to stem the tide of addiction and death.

Legislators, who are throwing all manner of concepts against the wall in an attempt to see what sticks, are having these discussions well aware that to do nothing will be seen as a failure back home.

Earlier this week, for example, a state Senate committee eliminated from one bill a proposal that would have given parents and guardians the authority to forcibly enroll their children into residential programs for addiction treatment.

Even legislative action that was taken a year ago has been slow in taking effect. According to a report by the Oregon Capital Chronicle, nearly $15 million was allocated in 2023 for the construction or expansion of residential treatment facilities. The amount of that $15 million that had been allocated at the time of this week’s OCC report?

$0

Fentanyl’s tentacles keep growing. We can see them spread in the anecdotal and data reporting on deaths. We can also see their reach in the cases that don’t show up in front-line statistics — such as the deaths of Asante patients believed to have occurred when a nurse allegedly stole treatment-level doses of the drug and replaced it with non-sterile tap water.

The crisis can stop us in our tracks. It can leave us at a loss for words. But that shouldn’t keep us from acting or speaking out.