Tarra McCarthy’s lucky break came in a moment that hovered between overdosing and sleeping, as she lethargically woke up to a detective’s phone call asking her to exit her apartment. Under the haze of fentanyl, she didn’t fully comprehend what was about to happen when she walked outside that December morning in Portland.
Police arrested the now 31-year-old that morning for a theft she’d committed a week earlier. The drug dealer she stole from had turned her in.