Oregon Voters Have a Major Change of Heart About Law that Decriminalized Drugs

[Kamaji]

Oregon Voters Have a Major Change of Heart About Law that Decriminalized Drugs

Leah Barkoukis
August 29, 2023

A majority of residents in the blue state of Oregon have had enough with the results of a 2020 ballot initiative that decriminalized hard drugs.

When 1,000 registered Oregon voters were asked in a recent Emerson College survey if they believed in a full repeal or leaving Measure 110 as is, 56 percent preferred a full repeal. When given a partial repeal option that would reinstitute penalties for drug possession vs. leaving the law intact, 64 percent chose the former.

The Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act, which passed with 58.8 percent of the vote in November of 2020, decriminalized small amounts of street drugs such as heroin and methamphetamines and channeled hundreds of millions into treatment options. The results have not been in line with how the measure was sold to the public, however.

    Advocates promised a new, progressive approach to addressing drug addiction, saying that people with substance-abuse disorders “need adequate access to recovery services, peer support and stable housing.” And, advocates said, drug addicts need treatment “through a humane, cost-effective, health approach,” not to be treated like criminals.

    Once passed, user amounts of hard street drugs were decriminalized, and “harm reduction” efforts — helping addicts to use drugs more safely — were prioritized. People caught with small amounts of drugs started receiving citations, like a parking ticket, and a $100 fine, which can be dismissed if the offender calls a treatment referral hotline and completes an assessment. Money from the state’s marijuana tax was going to be redirected to recovery services.

    But more than two years later, critics say the money for recovery services was dispensed slowly. During that period, with the rise in fentanyl abuse, drug-overdose deaths have skyrocketed and squalid homeless camps have proliferated. Only about 1 percent of people ticketed for drug possession have called the new hotline for help, an audit found.

    A majority of Oregonians polled by Emerson, or 54 percent, said they believe Measure 110 has increased homelessness in the state. Half of the poll respondents said they believe that drug decriminalization has made the community much less or somewhat less safe.

    Forty-one percent of respondents said they would be more likely to vote for a lawmaker who voted to repeal Measure 110, compared to 33 percent who said they would be less likely to vote for that lawmaker, and 25 percent who said it wouldn’t impact their vote. (National Review)

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Source:  https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2023/08/29/oregon-measure110-n2627677

[roamer_1]

This makes me smile... The wyrm turns.

I am surprised how long it took... People should be clamoring for law and order by now.

[PeteS in CA]

What kind of could not foresee the @#$%show that ballot measure caused?

[DefiantMassRINO]

OMFG, they decriminalized heroin and meth possession?  That's dumb.

[The_Reader_David]

Decriminalization is never the correct approach.  It leaves the trade in the hands of ruthless criminal gangs who are the source of much (most?) violent crime, whose product is not subject to quality control, and who for reasons unknown to me, feel that lacing their drugs with cheaper fentanyl, thereby killing a lot of their customers, is a good business strategy.  You basically get all the downsides of drugs being illegal and all the downsides of drugs being legal at the same time.

Full on legalization (which has to be at the Federal level) could make sense if the trade was shifted from criminal gangs to legal pharmaceutical manufacturers, with attendant quality controls, and money now spent on drug enforcement shifted to fund treatment programs for whose who realize their addictive habits may no longer kill them, but ruin their lives (and the lives of those around them) anyway.

[LMAO]

So what are they gonna do about it?

[roamer_1]

So what are they gonna do about it?

They need DAs that will turn a blind eye, and cops that can crack some heads.
If they do, the whole episode will be over quickly.

[Hoodat]

So what are they gonna do about it?

Vote Democrat, of course.