Skip to main contentBullets over Broadway? Hell, in Portland, we've got bullets in the middle of Broadway, and the toe-tag to prove it's no comedy.
The Nose--unlike half the city, it seems--was not at the intersection of Southwest Broadway and Alder Street late Monday morning when Richard James Ballantine was gunned down. But the Nose stumbled upon the flapping yellow police tape about a half-hour later, while on his way to get a burrito.
The initial reports rippling through the roar of police copters were comforting, at least to everyone outside of Ballantine's family. This wasn't a random attack. The 42-year-old Tillamook man apparently knew the shooter, who has since been identified as Robert E. Heinz. Before Ballantine expired, he told one witness two very interesting things: First, Heinz had asked Ballantine for some Xanax; and second, he and Heinz had met at Allied Health Services, a methadone clinic two blocks west on Alder.
Maybe it's too early to label this a drug-related homicide, but it's worth noting a couple of things. One is that Xanax is one of this country's most overprescribed drugs, Prozac for the anxiety set, a benzodiazepine that is commonly used by those who suffer from nervous tension, panic attacks and stress--which describes, by the Nose's last count, about 275 million Americans. Xanax also has exceedingly nasty withdrawal symptoms, including outbursts of rage.
The second thing worth noting is that methadone is touted as a cure for heroin addiction, when it's anything but. An estimated 3,300 Portlanders get their daily doses of methadone, mostly at for-profit clinics, but they are not becoming any less addicted--they are just switching monkeys. The only difference is that methadone, which is more additive than heroin, doesn't get you high when mixed carefully with a shot of orange juice.
Lots of folks credit methadone with saving their lives. They say a daily dose of the slightly numbing narcotic is far preferable to the mad craving for heroin.
But there are plenty of others who aren't so full of praise. Many say methadone, when mixed with heroin, gives a high far superior to that of heroin alone. Further problems can arise when it's mixed with Xanax: A quick Internet search found that last year a Georgia couple sued a methadone clinic saying it should have known their son was also taking Xanax. According to Dr. Donald Jasinski, of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, "It is medically well-documented that benzodiazepines [such as Xanax] adversely and sometimes fatally interact with methadone."
The deadly consequences of mixing methadone with other meds was demonstrated last month when Rolland Lee Page, a 48-year-old homeless man, fell asleep outside the KBOO radio station during a 14-hour marathon devoted to homelessness. Although initial reports tagged Page's death to a heroin overdose, Street Roots newspaper earlier this month revealed that the cause of death was later changed to "terminal methadone overdose." The paper reported that Page was a client at another Portland methadone clinic and had told friends he was also taking prescription drugs.
It's been some time since any drug story outside of medical marijuana made many waves, so it's the Nose's guess that the story of the murder of James Ballantine will have, as they call it in the news business, "legs."
On Thursday, Mayor Vera Katz conceded that she's always had misgivings about the methadone clinic on Southwest Alder. Now, she--and others--have a reason to take a hard look at how this drug is being used.
WWeek 2015