Emily Green/The Lund Report

About 1,900 people in recovery have been hired to help those struggling with addiction find their way to sobriety, but with too few places to send people to safely detox or receive treatment there’s no clear path to success

Despite a windfall of new funding that could combat Oregon’s meth-fueled behavioral health crisis, leaders have no plan and risk leaving promising approaches on the shelf.

In the state with the highest rate of meth use in the nation, the drug is driving severe mental illness among criminal defendants at the state psychiatric hospital, and other patients are paying the price.

State auditors issued a “risk” letter flagging issues even as the drug decriminalization act’s oversight council finished approving grant applications.

Frustrations mount as hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for Oregon’s underfunded drug and alcohol treatment and recovery providers continue to sit unspent in state coffers.

More than 16,000 Oregonians accessed services through the new grant program set up under Oregon’s landmark drug-decriminalization law in its first year, but less than 1% of those helped with Measure 110 dollars were reported to have entered treatment, new state data shows.