Does Oregon’s cherished Bottle Bill compound Portland’s fentanyl crisis?

Lawmakers in Salem recently enacted a series of substantive tweaks to the state’s beloved Bottle Bill, which allows residents to return cans and bottles for 10 cents apiece. Those changes have helped amplify a growing and complicated debate about Oregon’s first-in-the-nation program, now more than 50 years old. Does Portland and some other pockets of the state have a cash-for-cans crisis? What should city and state officials do about the drug, crime and livability problems surrounding some BottleDrops? And will these revisions to the Bottle Bill make the issue better or worse? On the latest Beat Check, reporters Aimee Green and Shane Dixon Kavanaugh discuss Green’s four-part series that digs deep into these questions and many more. Read More:Oregon loves its Bottle Bill, but is it dragging down Portland?‘At the grocery store, we’re looked down upon,’ say people who collect cans on Portland’s streetsFentanyl use, drug deals cluster around a few Portland Plaid Pantry stores. Chain’s boss worries it’ll get worseDo you return cans for 10 cents apiece? Oregon’s Bottle Bill is set to change Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices