But if overdoses are peaking in a lot of places outside of Oregon than pointing out that overdoses are going up quickly in Portland is being deceptive. (Note that I do not myself have any clue as to what the truth here is, but if magicalist is correct it certainly undermines this part of cronix's argument, which--whether it was intended to or not <- that is kind of irrelevant, as the interpretation is in the readers--seems to be using that as part of the rhetoric.)

What typically happens when something goes recreational in one area is the following:

1) Drug runners drive to Oregon (or wherever - but it's always going to be Oregon first) and pick things up and take them back to their home state.

2) When the first state goes recreational - people expect that things are generally becoming more LAX and eventually it will be allowed there too. And often that LAX expectation is what literally pushes that state to go there too, voters gonna vote.

But I'm definitely guessing the pandemic in general was just a huge event that has pushed probably millions (potentially billions worldwide) of people into general depression.