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.
The real problem with decriminalization of drugs is the lack of support for those who are using drugs.
Drugs become an avoidance coping mechanism for many of the users. If their lives sucks, they’ll keep doing drugs. Some of them keep using drugs because it’s also very addictive.
If you really wanna implement a decriminalization of drugs, you must also implement health care and social security care, probably for free. It’s necessary that people have access to psychologists, social services, medics and job opportunities.
As the psychologist Bruce Alexander said: The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it’s connection.