In a meeting (4/20 ) with the Shutter Creek Prison Superintendent, the local Parole Board Director and various staff, volunteers heard something that we should all contemplate.

Law Enforcement Interagency planning is based on all kinds of Criminal Intelligence gathering, as one can imagine. In this case the context is Heroin. I wrote the following in my notes:

“We are on the cusp of a wave of heroin abuse problems — the magnitude of which we’ve never faced before.”

We were left with the sense that the administration is in an unusual ramp-up mode. It seemed that there was a tone generally, of worry. Perhaps some of this is owing to legacy attitudes toward the impending decriminalization of certain “Gateway Drugs” — but whatever — the concern was palpable.

This was followed by a discussion of the evidence for this forecast including: The changing face of criminal activities across Oregon. Trends that…