A4 BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2022
Opinion
BAKER CITY
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Baker City, Oregon
EDITORIAL
The fatal
scourge of
fentanyl
A
recent study by the Oregon Health Authority
(OHA) about fentanyl is disturbing, and not
only because agency officials say the powerful
synthetic painkiller has become a leading cause of
overdose deaths.
It’s also troubling that fentanyl is so ubiquitous that
OHA officials can only concede that people will con-
tinue to ingest the drug. As a result, one of the agen-
cy’s chief goals — and a worthwhile one — is to strive
to ensure that Oregonians have access to naloxone, a
drug that saves lives by rapidly counteracting the ef-
fects of fentanyl and other opioids. The state has pro-
grams that supply naloxone for free, as well as strips
that test drugs for fentanyl.
Fentanyl is frightening in large part because many
people don’t even realize they’re ingesting it. The drug
is frequently present in illicit drugs, including pills.
The Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking
Area said in April 2022 that 40% of all counterfeit pills
in circulation contain fatal amounts of fentanyl.
In the same press release listing data about fatal
fentanyl overdoses, OHA recommends that “unless a
pharmacist directly hands you a prescription pill, as-
sume it is counterfeit and contains fentanyl.”
Obviously it’s preferable that people simply don’t
take illicit drugs.
But some people will do so, and although the effects
of drug abuse are serious and occasionally deadly, the
prevalence of fentanyl has dramatically raised the risk
of deaths that wouldn’t, in the absence of fentanyl,
have happened.
OHA’s study found that fentanyl overdose deaths
listed as either unintentional or undetermined in-
creased from 71 in 2019 to 519 in 2021. Fentanyl was
implicated in 47.5% of unintentional or undeter-
mined overdose deaths in the state in 2021, up from
32.1% in 2020 and 14.3% in 2019.
These terrible statistics highlight how vital it is for
police, at the local, state and federal levels, to combat
fentanyl trafficking.
Moreover, the overdose epidemic emphasizes the
need for Oregon to make better use of marijuana tax
revenue to bolster drug treatment programs. That was
supposed to be a benefit of Measure 110, the law Or-
egon voters approved in 2020 that decriminalizes the
possession of small amounts of drugs, including her-
oin and methamphetamine.
Naloxone saves lives. But it’s far better to help people
overcome their drug addictions so that they’ll never
need a “rescue drug” to save them from fentanyl.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald
YOUR VIEWS
With public safety, the
community has to come first
Throughout my career in policing I
told numerous subordinates, colleagues
and superiors that if you want to work
in public service, the public has to come
first. The priorities that you set for your
agency and for yourself, must reflect
your commitment to the community
you serve. That thought process, unfor-
tunately, seems to have been lost within
portions of the Baker City government.
The recent discussions about 20-hour
police coverage and/or one officer on
a shift at a time, reflects a mindset that
does not put the safety of the community
first.
This dilemma about short staffing is
nothing new for the Baker City Police
Department, as alluded to by the city
manager and chief of police. Even when
fully staffed and trained, the Baker City
Police Department operates at minimum
patrol coverage, which has two patrol of-
ficers on shift 24 hours a day, with a ser-
geant on an overlap shift. However, with
vacations, sick leave and open positions,
the sergeants end up working regular pa-
trol shifts the vast majority of the time. If
you lose another officer from a team, you
have to pay overtime to cover the shift. If
you lose that officer for an extended time,
you are faced with the same dilemma the
department has now, which we have seen
numerous times through the years.
What we did for the 12 years I was
chief of police was to temporarily move a
detective back to patrol and a few times
we had to move both detectives back to
patrol. You see, this is where prioritiz-
ing the community first comes into play.
A municipal police department has no
greater priority than to provide patrol
officers who can respond to an emer-
gency, immediately upon notification.
That means 24 hours a day. It also means
that you must have two officers on a shift
so they can safely respond to high risk
calls immediately and not have to wait
for backup. I will grant you that the call
volume drops dramatically at 3 a.m.; but
I will also tell you that if there were only
one spouse being beaten, or one conve-
nience store clerk being robbed, or one
home being burglarized, or one vulnera-
ble child missing during those hours in a
year’s time, all the labor hours would be
worth it.
I realize that Chief Duby came from
a different policing background, having
spent his entire career with the Oregon
State Police. He never had to prioritize
the safety of an entire community. I will
argue that the vast majority of municipal-
ities in the state prioritize patrol over in-
vestigations. It certainly worked in Baker
City through the years, garnering the city
the distinction of being named the saf-
est city in Oregon at one point. I daresay
that’s not the case now.
The last thing I want to add about the
20-hour shift proposal is the fact that it
does nothing to address the short staff-
ing. It takes just as many bodies to run
10-hour shifts as it does to run the cur-
rent 12-hour shifts. All you save by going
to 10-hour shifts is some accrued comp
time for the officers working those shifts.
With the 2-2-3, 12-hour shifts the police
currently operate under, each patrol offi-
cer works on average 42 hours each week.
Thus, they accrue 8 hours of overtime
each month, which goes into their comp
account. If the city did drop to 10-hour
shifts, I would guess the standby pay and
overtime pay for call outs would not be a
good financial trade off.
As mentioned previously, none of
these current issues are new. And the
solutions aren’t so hard to figure out,
when you start with the belief that the
community has to come first.
Wyn Lohner
Baker City
Great to see the motorcycles
return to Baker City
This past weekend of July 8-10 saw a
return of the motorcycles to Baker City.
What a great weekend it was. We all
thought the Baker Biker Rally would not
come to visit but due to the exhaustive ef-
forts of Brandy and her crew at Shameless
Tees and a massive community participa-
tion and support — the event went off as
planned and was a rousing success.
With a limited window in time to bring
all the moving parts together, everyone
who added their support and encour-
agement can take a portion of the credit
for returning this event to the calendar.
Those who have added other such events
to our list of community attractions will
respect the speed with which this grand
event came together. There was no sense
of confusion on the streets, just a general
happy response from everyone we talked
to. The weather was as close to perfect as
could be and high spirits were obvious
by the smiles and friendly greetings ex-
changed.
The list of names is too extensive for
me to include here but one name was
heard more than once. Greg was a dy-
namo of good cheer and many did men-
tion him by name. I know he is a decent,
humble guy but he too, deserves a hearty
“thank you.” So let us show our apprecia-
tion to all the workers, vendors and guests
that made this weekend so much fun. All
we need to do is be sure our locally or-
ganized and operated event remains on
the calendar for years to come. We have
proven we, as a community, can stage a
winner!
Penny Rienks
Baker City
‘Blessings of liberty’ still
haven’t been fully realized
In her letter to the editor of the Baker
City Herald dated July 9, 2022, the writer
wrote, “Our Founding Fathers drew wis-
dom from the Word of God” in compos-
ing the Declaration of Independence and
the U.S. Constitution, thereby “securing
the blessings of liberty that we have en-
joyed for 264 years,” referring to the years
since the colonies declared their indepen-
dence from England.
If the Founding Fathers drew wisdom
from the Bible, then why did they com-
pletely leave out these significant groups:
slaves, Indians, and women? In addition,
only men who owned property qualified
to run for government office.
It would be decades, including a civil
war and passage of several amendments
to the Constitution, before those ne-
glected groups would see the “blessings
of liberty” in the United States. And those
blessings have yet to be fully fulfilled to
this very day.
Gary Dielman
Baker City
COLUMN
Responsible gun owners support safety measures
BY DR. CANDICE JONES
I
’m a pediatrician and I own a gun.
That may surprise you. I own a
handgun because I grew up with
guns. My dad had a shotgun mounted
in his truck and he hunted and pro-
vided food for his family. He empha-
sized gun safety, carefully supervised
us children when we hunted with
him and taught us how to shoot. My
great-grandfather kept a gun in the
house as a means of protection, and
my husband and I uphold that safe-
guard in our home today. I even have
a license to carry a concealed gun in
Florida.
I was taught how to properly handle
guns and I understand their power. I
also know all too well the risks of chil-
dren finding firearms, so my pistol is
kept in a secure place.
I also support sensible gun mea-
sures to keep guns out of the hands of
those who absolutely should not have
them. I am not alone. A 2021 survey
by the Pew Research Center found
that 92% of Democrats and 70% of
Republicans support background
checks for private gun sales.
The gun legislation that recently
was passed by Congress will expand
background checks for would-be gun
buyers under age 21, giving author-
ities up to 10 business days to study
juvenile and mental health records.
It also sets aside money for states to
pay for intervention programs and
to implement red flag laws that allow
authorities to temporarily confiscate
guns from someone a judge deems
too dangerous to have them.
These are important steps, but we
can do more. Law-abiding, responsi-
ble gun owners like me and others I
know want federal firearm measures
that keep people safe, including:
• Comprehensive background
checks for anyone buying a gun
• Mandatory firearm safety training
and licensing process
• Raising the age of gun ownership
in all situations to 21, the same as the
legal drinking age
• A ban on assault rifles and
high-capacity magazines
• Funding for more research on gun
violence to inform evidence-based
reduction strategies and effective leg-
islation
These measures can save many
lives. They can’t prevent every mass
shooting, of course, but they could
stop some would-be gunmen from
taking lives.
The recent massacres at a school in
Texas and at a grocery store in New
York, for example, were committed
by 18-year-old men whom authori-
ties said legally bought military-style
rifles. What might have happened if
they’d been denied the ability to pur-
chase these powerful weapons?
I am tired of living afraid. When I
drop my children off at school in the
morning, I feel a small knot of dread
and wonder if someone with a gun
will enter their school that day, mak-
ing it the latest in a long line of shoot-
ings. As an African American woman,
I also must worry about being shot
at the grocery store or at church by
someone with hate for others in his
heart. And now I must wonder if holi-
day parades in my city are safe.
I serve families from underserved,
marginalized communities, and gun
violence is no stranger to my practice
in Orlando. I’ve seen a teen follow-
ing up after hospitalization for multi-
ple gunshot wounds, suffering from
post-traumatic stress and also try-
ing to cope with the grief of losing a
friend to gun violence.
Another teen, whose life was full
of adversity and who suffered men-
tal illness and substance use, shot and
killed his caregiver in a fit of rage. I
have seen siblings experiencing do-
mestic violence that led to the death
of their mother, who was shot by their
father.
These children and families will
never be the same. Gun violence now
is the leading cause of death in chil-
dren in the U.S. We must remember
that these deaths are preventable,
and Congress should act now. I am a
gun owner, but my right to bear arms
should never supersede the rights of
children and families to be safe from
gun violence in schools, while shop-
ping, or while attending a special oc-
casion.
So, I ask, pray and plead: Please act
now and pass gun laws that can save
lives.
Dr. Candice Jones is a general pediatrician
in private practice in Orlando, Florida, and
a member of the American Academy of
Pediatrics.
CONTACT YOUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS
President Joe Biden: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania
Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500; 202-456-1111; to send
comments, go to www.whitehouse.gov.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden: D.C. office: 221 Dirksen Senate Office
Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-5244; fax 202-
228-2717. La Grande office: 105 Fir St., No. 210, La Grande, OR
97850; 541-962-7691; fax, 541-963-0885; wyden.senate.gov.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley: D.C. office: 313 Hart Senate Office
Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-3753;
fax 202-228-3997. Portland office: One World Trade Center, 121
S.W. Salmon St. Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; 503-326-3386;
fax 503-326-2900. Baker City office, 1705 Main St., Suite 504,
541-278-1129; merkley.senate.gov.
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (2nd District): D.C. office: 1239
Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515,
202-225-6730; fax 202-225-5774. Medford office: 14 N. Central
Avenue Suite 112, Medford, OR 97850; Phone: 541-776-4646;
fax: 541-779-0204; Ontario office: 2430 S.W. Fourth Ave., No. 2,
Ontario, OR 97914; Phone: 541-709-2040. bentz.house.gov.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown: 254 State Capitol, Salem, OR
97310; 503-378-3111; www.governor.oregon.gov.
Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read: oregon.treasurer@ost.
state.or.us; 350 Winter St. NE, Suite 100, Salem OR 97301-3896;
503-378-4000.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum: Justice
Building, Salem, OR 97301-4096; 503-378-4400.
Oregon Legislature: Legislative documents and information
are available online at www.leg.state.or.us.
State Sen. Lynn Findley (R-Ontario): Salem office: 900 Court
St. N.E., S-403, Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1730. Email: Sen.
LynnFindley@oregonlegislature.gov
State Rep. Mark Owens (R-Crane): Salem office: 900 Court
St. N.E., H-475, Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1460. Email: Rep.
MarkOwens@oregonlegislature.gov
Baker City Hall: 1655 First Street, P.O. Box 650, Baker City, OR
97814; 541-523-6541; fax 541-524-2049. City Council meets
the second and fourth Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers.