Portland, Oregon, is an epicenter of the deepening opioid crisis in the United States, where a life is lost to drug use every eleven minutes. Fentanyl, a cheap and highly potent synthetic opioid up to fifty times stronger than heroin, has been responsible for the majority of overdose deaths. In 2023, the overdose death rate topped 112,000 in twelve months for the first time, with more lives lost than in the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan combined. 'Dead End' brings into focus the personal stories of the people battling addiction in the streets of Portland.

This crisis comes after Oregon made history in 2020 when it became the first U.S. state to decriminalize small amounts of hard drugs. The so-called measure 110 aimed to help people with treatment and recovery by expanding services and outreach centers, which have proliferated around Portland. Critics of the measure insist it was stoking the addiction crisis; decriminalization advocates counter that the effort was not given enough time to take hold. 
 
Now Portland – a city famous for its progressive politics – is trying to chart a path forward through the divide as the homeless population surges and overdose deaths keep multiplying. Big Story correspondent Jason Motlagh goes beyond the headlines and statistics to report the human side of this unprecedented public health crisis ravaging the U.S.