With Oregon facing rampant public drug use, lawmakers backpedal on pioneering decriminalization law
apnews.com
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.
End the failed war on drugs already.
B- but then people might use drugs more openly and be more forthright in admitting they have an addiction, and I'll have to look at them! We had better just throw them all in jail instead. That always works.
Do you think kids should be subjected to people shooting up drugs when playing outside or when going to school?
I am anti drug war personally but if any situation led to it being easier for kids to be subjected to that, that seems like a worse world.
Wont someone think of the children!?!??!?!?!!??!?!?!??!
Very "Hello fellow kids" kinda comment with that "im anti drug war..." part
Beyond all that, countries like Netherlands have safe injection sites where users can get clean needles, be in a safe space for consumption, test kits for safety, and monitors to watch for accidental overdoses.
All these negative effects are consequences of the war on drugs, not the drugs themselves. If society treats drug addicts as patients instead of as criminals, things get better. This has worked every time it's been tried. The only reason it isn't done in a larger scale is people who benefit from the war on drugs preventing it.
Do you think if we stop the war on drugs, that will reduce the number of homeless drug addicted people? I don't think it will. There's need to be more to it than that, otherwise you're literally not preparing for the 2nd half of that foot drop.
I largely agree alot of these problems are a result of criminalizing drug use but decriminizing doesn't solve some of these problems with homeless folks which is probably more related to mental health services.
Ending the war on drugs will not solve every problem. But at least things will stop getting worse. And it'll make it far easier to tackle all the other problems.
That's one reason why more progressive areas have safe injection sites. Wanna guess who's generally against those?
Yes. Why hide the world when it's right in front of them? Tall to the child, tell them what is happening and do not imply judgement. Unless you feel the need to talk shit about those with drug addiction, then that's your personal thing but most folks find that kind of thing distasteful since its metaphorically kicking someone while they are stuck in a life they can't get out of. And many do want out, want to quit, but they lack the help and resources to escape. So if you are upset at seeing this and want others to "think of the children", ask yourself what you will do about it?
tHiNk Of TeH kIdS!!!!!!11!!!1!!
It's a relevant point. We don't allow cigarette companies to advertise to children so should it be acceptable to advertise crack or coke?
The ban on tobacco advertisements is a relatively recent thing.
We're inundated with ads for alcohol and pharmaceuticals.
Super unhealthy sugar-filled snacks and breakfast cereals made up like 90% of TV commercials when I was growing up.
Yeah and we need to stop those too.
I mean im all for legalization but im also fine restricting it from public places and allowing property owners to determine usage at their location. I mean that is how alchohol works. At least here you can't be drinking in parks unless its a festival with a license.
And even when it's allowed in, it doesn't mean allowing people to just do whatever. There's plenty of places around the world where you can have a drink outdoors, but there's still laws against loitering, being a nuisance, picking fights, etc.
There's a whole wide world between "nobody can do drugs ever" and "we must tolerate fucked up people fucking up everything everywhere."
yeah where im at they legalized weed and im annoyed they did not allow grow but I actually would like more restriction on advertising. The whole point of legalization is to gain some control of the situation.
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
As those articles you linked point out, it is illegal to sell drugs and the police arrest people who do. What exactly are you recriminalizing? Is this a case where the POLICE do not want to actively solve the drug selling problem because they want to return to the days when the state money was being funneled to them and not treatment programs? We lived with possession being criminalized and nothing working since the 80s. I think we can try decriminalizing possession for long enough to get the treatment programs running.
Drug use is way up in states that are not Oregon. Fentanyl and Covid have changed the game. The timing is unfortunate sadly to try something new.
Bingo. The state hasn't actually funded any new treatment centers and things like using drugs in a park are already illegal. This is just a way for the state to get off the hook for actually funding treatment centers while throwing a bone to police who are butthurt that they lost one of their easiest, low effort methods to arrest someone. Most of the stats thrown around about drug use in this state were from before this law even passed, so how will going right back to the old system improve anything? Democrats are lucky that Republican legislators are such pieces of trash because otherwise they'd actually be held accountable for being such huge disappointments to the population.
The police don't arrest people who do, that's part of the problem. They can be embarrased into action by the media, they take action if the problem gets "bad enough".
Meanwhile:
Overdoses are through the roof:
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/the-story/portland-downtown-firefighter-overdose-calls-narcan-deaths/283-a37b7402-c199-40ce-a120-bb6aec149365
"In June alone, firefighters from Station 1 responded to 300 overdoses.
Portland police data shows that back in 2020 nearly 90 people died from overdoses. The number jumped to 135 in 2021, then to 159 in all of 2022. So far this year there have been 151 deaths, all in less than seven months. Police expect that number to be around 300 by year's end.
Portland firefighters are responding to more overdoses than fires — and when they do respond to a fire, it’s often-homeless camp related."
https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2023/04/pills-petty-crime-despair-a-perfect-storm-batters-heart-of-downtown-portland.html
Drug related theft is through the roof:
https://www.koin.com/news/crime/retail-theft-linked-to-drugs-stolen-vehicles-in-portland/
I generally agree with your take on what is happening. But drug overdoses are way up in all states because of Fentanyl and Covid related breakdown of social programs. Since overdoses increased in other states too, I find it unlikely that we need to recriminalize to reduce them. Additionally, we have DECADES of criminalization that wasted billions without fixing the problem. How will this criminalization do what was not done in all that time in all those states. If it won’t fix it, why do we want to dump money into the police and courts?
I support a lot of actions to reduce the nuisance. I hate cleaning up needles and seeing public spaces turned into inhospitable areas. I just don’t think criminalization of possession is going to fix that. It didn't for the last 40 years. It won’t now.
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.