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The Measure 110 Oversight and Accountability Council discusses during its July 3, 2024 meeting a new formula for grants that is intended to set a funding floor for rural counties. | SCREENSHOT

Lawmakers want to change how Measure 110 funds are spent

Local officials don't like spending decisions made by a volunteer oversight council
Feb 26
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A reporter receives the five-needle protocol, an acupuncture method that has seen renewed interest for purportedly reducing cravings and helping people in recovery. | JAKE THOMAS/THE LUND REPORT

Oregon lawmakers look to acupuncture to ease addiction crisis

Research into the “five-needle protocol” is inconclusive, but backers say it provides a low-cost way to help people struggling with addiction, especially in marginalized communities.
Feb 18
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Gov. Tina Kotek and Attorney General Dan Rayfield blasted the Trump administration on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 after federal funding portals shut down in the wake of a new White House order.

Kotek, Rayfield blast Trump over shutdown of Medicaid funding

As lawmakers take up an optimistic budget proposed by Kotek, the unexplained abrupt shutdown of federal reimbursements to a variety of safety net programs is sparking a backlash across the country
Jan 28
Inside state hospital
A white board in a hallway inside the Oregon State Hospital in November 2023. | JAKE THOMAS/THE LUND REPORT

Judge overseeing state hospital case demands answers as contempt order looms

The state's failure to provide adequate mental health treatment is having ripple effects around the state and causing civil rights violations. U.S. District Judge Adrienne Nelson wants to know specifically what is being done to fix things.
Jan 23
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Rachel Solotaroff at Portland's Old Town Clinic. | COURTESY CENTRAL CITY CONCERN

How Oregon health officials are preparing for change under Trump

Oregonians’ health care could face more change than most states under the new federal administration, and Dr. Sejal Hathi, director of the state health authority, said officials are preparing to respond quickly as things happen
Jan 3
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The west plaza at Oregon State Hospital in Salem. | COURTESY OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY

Judge may extend discharge deadlines for Oregon State Hospital patients

Much-criticized court order is no longer doing enough to ease the state's problem with lack of psychiatric beds, but supporters say it's better than nothing as the state continues to regularly violate a decades- old civil rights ruling
Dec 17, 2024
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How meth is sabotaging Oregon's behavioral health system
SHUTTERSTOCK

Read our two-part series about how — despite a windfall of new funding — the state has no plan to address the 'new meth' that is overwhelming behavioral health providers and inflaming ongoing crises across the state. 

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State inaction left Oregon teens vulnerable to fentanyl’s fatal spread
A student at Harmony Academy, a high school for teens in recovery, told The Lund Report he didn't realize he was smoking fentanyl until his parent had him tested. He thought the pills he was buying were oxycodone. | EMILY GREEN/THE LUND REPORT

A lack of prevention, education and youth addiction programs opened the door to tragedy as dealers added the potent opioid to local drug markets

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