Measure 110, an experiment approved in 2020, gets overhauled as state grapples with fentanyl crisis and growing public drug use

Measure 110, an experiment approved in 2020, gets overhauled as state grapples with fentanyl crisis and growing public drug use

Oregon lawmakers have moved to reintroduce criminal penalties for the possession of hard drugs, in effect ending the state’s groundbreaking three-year decriminalization experiment.

In 2020, nearly 60% of voters moved to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs with the passage of Measure 110, but the new law had grown increasingly controversial as the state grappled with the fentanyl crisis and growing public drug use.

Lawmakers had recently reached a bipartisan deal to undo a key aspect of the law and make minor possession a misdemeanor, while also allocating millions of dollars toward specialty court programs as well as mental health and addiction treatment.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
    54·
    9 months ago

    From the article:

    Lawmakers had recently reached a bipartisan deal to undo a key aspect of the law and make minor possession a misdemeanor, while also allocating millions of dollars toward specialty court programs as well as mental health and addiction treatment.

    So, no, it’s modifying the law, not undoing it.

    But research has so far showed no correlation between the rise in overdoses and decriminalization.

    HMMMM.

    Still, the public health crisis, coupled with a shortage in affordable housing that has fueled homelessness, has become more visible and residents and business owners have grown increasingly exasperated. City residents report seeing people openly smoking fentanyl in downtowns while small towns that had historically low rates of homelessness are now seeing encampments.

    “What has developed in the last three years is not the utopian Shangri-La that we have been promised with ballot Measure 110,” Christopher Parosa, the Eugene district attorney, said at a community forum this year, “but rather a dystopian nightmare that is akin to a grim Hollywood movie.”

    Ah, yes, the west coast, famously devoid of homeless people, suddenly inundated with them. Couldn’t have anything to do with, idk, it costing $600 just to rent a room in even a smaller city? $900-1100 for a one bedroom apartment? The cost and supply of housing has nothing to do with the homelessness crisis that’s basically been stewing since 2008, it’s definitely just the last two years of decriminalization? Okay.

    Also notably absent: actual, verifiable data-backed evidence that this has been a policy disaster. Plenty of anecdote, though, so I’m sure they’re onto the truth of the matter.

    • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
      25·
      9 months ago

      As an Oregonian, I find their explanation to be horseshit and this change as nothing more than the Democratic party trying to sway potential voters in an election year and funnel even more money into the police and prison system. This shit was just as bad before 110 passed but now we’re not wasting money keeping people in jail for months only to dump them right back out on the street.

      The biggest issue with 110 is that the state hasn’t actually dispersed any of the funding in order to open up new rehab facilities. Furthermore, police here are still butthurt about all the protests and refuse to do their job 90% of the time (while still collecting their fat paychecks) which makes people believe things like public drug use are legal.

      • Enk1@lemmy.world
        10·
        9 months ago

        This is it. A lack of training for officers and a lack of infrastructure to support rehabilitation. The bill was set up for failure, as none of the above happened prior to the law going into effect. It’s like removing your physical fence before installing an invisible fence and wondering why your animals all ran away.

    • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.netEnglish
      19·
      9 months ago

      I read an article recently about the failure of this measure. It attributed a large part of the failure to a lack of training. For example, police were significantly less likely to hand out tickets for minor possession than they were to make arrests (before the measure), because they didn’t see what the point was. To them, it was just a significantly more lenient system and the article argued that training could’ve helped them to see that the ticket isn’t meant to be a punitive measure, but a way to pull people towards the increased support.

      The police were essential outreach, but they weren’t given training to understand how their role was different. The tickets that were being handed out were a standard one, instead of a custom ticket made for this new citation, which would’ve explained that you can get the ticket waived if you call the support number listed.

      Edit: found the article https://www.opb.org/article/2024/02/14/oregon-drug-decriminalization-plan-measure-110-leadership-failures/

      • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
        2·
        9 months ago

        Get a few people together and start raising hell at city council. I’m doing it. Together we can all demand better cities.

        • Pacmanlives@lemmy.world
          1·
          9 months ago

          I wish that would work but not in a real city it would take a few thousand with pitchforks and mortars basically killing everyone and everything.

          So you going full Detroit or Cleveland both cities I love and love to visit but would not live there

          • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
            1·
            9 months ago

            Well, you could always just wait and see if things get better, but it doesn’t seem to be working.

            ¯\_(ツ)_/¯