Rowan says fentanyl possession amount is too high
By Terry Murry on Friday, July 22nd, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
UMATILLA COUNTY – The Oregon Legislature has so far refused to tinker with Ballot Measure 110, which legalized personal-use possession of set amounts of narcotics. Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan said it seems to him it’s not that the lawmakers can’t made adjustments to a measure passed by the voters, it’s that they don’t want to do so.
“We’re being told that since this was a voter-passed initiative there may not be any help for us in that regard, but at the same time we had Measure 11 (mandatory minimum jail sentences) on the books for quite a number of years and our legislators have been toying with that,” Rowan said. “What is the right solution here? I’d like to see our legislators step up to the plate and take some action and maybe change the quantity amounts or something that we can sink our teeth into.”
Fentanyl is a major problem in Umatilla County and Rowan would like to see the quantity for that drug changed.
“With fentanyl, especially when a couple of fentanyl pills could create an overdose situation, they’ve made it possible for an individual to possess 40 of those,” he said.
Rowan believes that for the most part the voters didn’t know what they were approving when they passed Measure 110.
“We just do not believe that the voters were educated on exactly what they were voting on,” he said.
