The fentanyl crisis in one deep blue city has gotten so bad that officials have declared an official "state of emergency" over the issue. 

In a statement on Tuesday, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson, and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler agreed to a "90-day state of emergency to address the public health and public safety crisis driven by fentanyl in Portland’s Central City."

Kotek admitted that the crisis had damaged the city's reputation and would require an "unprecedented collaboration" to resolve the issue:

Our country and our state have never seen a drug this deadly and addictive, and all are grappling with how to respond. “The Chair, the Mayor and I recognize the need to act with urgency and unity across our public health and community safety systems to make a dent in this crisis. We are all in this together. The next 90 days will yield unprecedented collaboration and focused resources targeting fentanyl and provide a roadmap for next steps.

The statement explained that "command centers" would be set up across the city to "refocus existing resources" and address problems directly: 

All three emergency orders direct the City, State, and County to commit available resources to the unified response. A command center will be stood up in the central city where state, county and city employees will convene to coordinate strategies and response efforts. Each level of government has identified an incident commander who will be responsible for coordinating resources from the jurisdiction they represent. 

The Command Center will serve to refocus existing resources. It will also share and publicly report data on the impacts of fentanyl in downtown, use data to identify and respond to acute needs and gaps in service, identify any specific resources necessary to address gaps, and establish a system to coordinate that can be sustained beyond the 90-day startup period.

Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson attempted to reassure members of the public that the city was not just ignoring the problem: 

If you or a loved one is struggling with a fentanyl addiction, we hear you, we see you and we are taking this crisis seriously. We are acting with shared leadership to take urgent action today to respond to the very human toll fentanyl takes in our community, including overdoses, fatalities and day-to-day suffering, and the fear so many families are experiencing as a result.

Although particularly prevalent in heavily Democratic cities such as Portland, San Francisco and Philadelphia, the problem of fentanyl extends across the entire country.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia pic.twitter.com/7M98xjO7sq

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The synthetic opioid, which is said to be 50 times more powerful than heroin, is most commonly trafficked across the southern border by Mexican drug cartels who sourced the components to make the drug from China.

According to NPR, fentanyl-related deaths hit a staggering 112,000 in 2023, with young people and ethnic minorities being particularly susceptible to its disastrous impact. 

Just this week, U.S. officials held high-level talks with China to discuss the crisis and seek Beijing's help in countering what is described as the worst drug crisis in American history. The outcome of the talks has yet to be publicly revealed.