> you will have a huge budget to direct to social programs that can reduce the upstream causes of drug abuse, not just providing treatment after the fact. It sounds like Oregon didn’t get those programs in place yet.

If anything, Portland's actively pushed back against the county's efforts to put programs in place because the mayor wants the money to instead sweep ad-hoc encampments into city-run encampments:

https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2022/12/portland-mayor-t...

https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2023/05/mayor-ted-wheele...