Democratic lawmakers in Oregon on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping new bill that would undo a key part of the state’s first-in-the-nation drug decriminalization law, a recognition that public opinion has soured on the measure amid rampant public drug use during the fentanyl crisis.
The bill would recriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs as a low-level misdemeanor, enabling police to confiscate them and crack down on their use on sidewalks and in parks, its authors said. It also aims to make it easier to prosecute dealers, to access addiction treatment medication, and to obtain and keep housing without facing discrimination for using that medication.
Oregonian here… Measure 110 is an absolute shit show.
Yes, it decriminalized drugs and funded treatment programs, but the problem was the treatment programs were 100% optional.
Here’s how it “worked”:
Get busted with drugs, it’s a $100 fine.
Fine can get waived if you call a toll free number to ask about treatment.
Note: All you had to do was call the number. You didn’t have to actually GET treatment.
Initially 16,000 or so people were cited in the first year, 0.85% (~136) sought treatment.
https://www.oregonlive.com/health/2022/09/oregons-drug-decriminalization-effort-sends-less-than-1-of-people-to-treatment.html
The rest were looking for free needle exchanges, free methadone, free naloxone.
There are no real consequences, and unlike booze and pot, there are no laws banning public use of hard drugs.
So we get open air drug markets, run by cartels from Honduras, in this case mere blocks from police HQ:
https://www.wweek.com/news/courts/2023/03/25/whos-running-downtown-portlands-open-air-fentanyl-market/
https://www.koin.com/news/crime/feds-drug-traffickers-using-honduran-nationals-to-funnel-fentanyl-into-portland/
https://www.justice.gov/usao-or/pr/honduran-man-arrested-portland-trafficking-rainbow-fentanyl-and-firearms-charged-federal
Why should there be consequences for possessing something that’s been decriminalized? Like it seems like you’re missing the entire point?
People looking for safe injection sites and needle exchanges is a good thing, it’s called harm reduction. That’s a win. That’s one of the main things that decriminalization allows us to do; let people use their drug of choice safely and privately.
Guns are legal, but there’s still penalties for possession in certain circumstances. Why should drugs be different? There’s no reason to be going around in public with a pocket full of meth.
Pot and booze are both legal, but you aren’t allowed to get high or wasted in public either.