DAs will still be free to prosecute nobody for drugs if they choose. Don’t count on Multco’s DA Mike Schmidt cracking down on drugs any more than he does now. Vote for Nathan Vasquez to replace him.
This is a whitewash. The politicians bowed to all the special interests and particularly the non profit money machine. This doesn’t even go into effect until 9/1. Read the economic reports coming out of Portland, it may never recover from this, at least not in my lifetime. The state is literally spending millions of dollars on this, all the while local government continues to add new “fees” wherever they can as they proclaim to be “short” of funds for services.
I’m willing to bet if a full repeal of 110 was on the May ballot it would pass by a larger margin than the original measure did in 2020.
A thousand dead bodies pave the way for their little experiment and in the 3-4 years to disentangle ourselves from the meaningless HB 4002 almost as many or will die.
Measure 110 was the fully funded national experiment of Soros' Drug Policy Alliance. HB 4002 is a very lightly modified knock-of, hence the enthusiastic support of lightweights like Kropf, Lieber, Smith, and the rejection by those Democrats in total thrall of DPA - Prozanski and Valderrama.
In 2027 we'll be back, counting OD's in five digits annually...again!
The root problem is the repeated failure of Oregon (and particularly Portland) voters to think about what they are voting for...flimflam, in most instances. And putting ghastly pols in office and keeping them there for life. And allowing the creation of one of the most stifling, corrupt poltical machines in the country.
Outstanding article so many issues, to paraphrase the infamous PT Barnum Nobody has gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the average Oregon voter. I hope this "correction" is effective. I fear it is as Josh Marquis commented in today's Willamette Week apologetics of measure 110 that it is largerly an ineffective bandaid designed more to keep the peasants from their torches and pitchforks than actually structured to be successful. As the to phenomenally corrupt nexus between the permenant ruling party and "nonprofit" baksheesh I continue to hope for the voters great awakening
A small step on the road to recovery, which, for Oregon, is more like a leap! I’m thankful for that. Elsewhere, the Legislature is now trying to limit our choices of health care plans (HB 4130). The end goal is to have a single-payer insurance plan. Controlled of course by the State. And then there’s SB 1583 that would limit the say of parents and school boards in the kinds of sexual books and other materials in our K-8 schools. Again, our Democrat betters know best. No end to their mischief.
Jeff, great job in giving credit to Oregon legislature’s imperfect but well meaning change to a bad law. Also, a quiet thanks to the governor for temporarily slowing our naive ‘fentanyl purchasing program’—which allows addicts to take cans and bottles from recycling bins and cash them in at Safeway and Plaid Pantry.
Here's the Drug Policy Alliance's (DPA) March 1, 2024, scare piece about Oregon's repudiation of the DPA's failed experiment in decriminalization.
See if you can spot the outright lies, half-truths, straw men and other bad-faith arguments. The purpose of this exercise isn't just to document the DPA's dishonesty. No, there's an audience for this propaganda in Oregon, including progressive legislators, activists and progressive voters. They're not going to stop agitating for re-decriminalizaton. To defeat the DPA and its proxies, opponents of decriminalization will need to be able to refute each and every one of the DPA's arguments.
More than anything else, the DPA is hoping to be able to tell the world that in post-M110 Oregon, addicts are detoxing and even dying in cold jail cells without access to treatment while they await stiff prison sentences.
The best way to stop the DPA and its allies from selling Oregonians a "false bill of goods" again is to make sure that Oregon disappoints them by:
1. NOT "[doubling] down on the failed approach of . . . jailing people for drug possession." Going forward, if anyone is jailed for simple possession, it should only be because they and not the system have failed themselves.
and
2. Making sure that people struggling with drug use get consistent and reasonable access to treatment in lieu of incarceration.
Oregon Set to Recriminalize Drugs, Return to Failed Approach of Arresting, Jailing People for Possession
Press Release March 1, 2024
Media Contact
Brian Pacheco
Salem, OR – Today, the Oregon Senate voted to pass House Bill (HB) 4002, which recriminalizes drug possession and doubles down on the failed approach of arresting and jailing people for drug possession. The bill is a disappointing setback for the hard-won progress achieved through Measure 110 — the state’s pioneering drug decriminalization law overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2020. It is also a false bill of goods: people struggling with drug use will go to jail and not get treatment. Lawmakers passed HB 4002 after Oregonians demonstrated widespread opposition to the legislation’s recriminalization of drugs as a response to public suffering. Now it’s expected to move on to Gov. Tina Kotek, who said she will sign it into law.
“Today, politicians blamed an innovative policy in its infancy for decades of their own ineffectiveness,” said Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “The fact is that drug decriminalization worked to reduce the harms of criminalization. It is Oregon leaders that didn’t work. Their chronic underfunding of affordable housing, effective addiction services and accessible health care are to blame for the heartbreaking public suffering seen in Oregon’s streets. And there is not a shred of evidence supporting claims that Measure 110 increased homelessness, overdose or crime rates. Recriminalizing drugs is a false promise of change to distract from politicians’ incompetence as they approach reelection.”
As demonstrated in a recent ProPublica investigation, Oregon government agencies were negligent in implementing Measure 110 as the law was initially designed and passed by voters, allowing opponents to falsely claim it as a failure, and paving the way for drugs to be recriminalized. To support this tactic, proponents of HB 4002 promoted inaccurate and misleading claims connecting decriminalization with increased overdose rates within the state.
“Today, HB 4002 is being touted as a compromise, but we ask at the cost to whom? It is an unacceptable compromise when we know that there will be disparate impacts to Oregonians of color. It is not enough to monitor the system when we know it is a system that has bias built into it. I fear that we will be back next year, hearing those stories of harm, figuring out how to make our communities whole,” said Jennifer Parrish Taylor, director of advocacy and public policy of the Urban League of Portland.
Despite the poor and slow implementation, Measure 110 made strides in what it intended to do by dramatically reducing the harms of criminalization by limiting arrests, criminal records and the barriers to jobs and housing that come with those records; and increasing access to and engagement with lifesaving services. Even proponents of HB 4002 acknowledge that the measure was successful in these ways, as the bill specifically stipulates that services only made possible by Measure 110 will remain in place, and with good reason. Measure 110 resulted in over $300 million to expand addiction services in its first two years alone, resulting in dramatic increases in the number of clients accessing the addiction services and social supports they need, including substance use disorder treatment, housing services and overdose prevention services.
HB 4002 abandons the goal of a public health approach to drug use and addiction in Oregon by treating it as a crime. Under the bill, possession of small amounts of controlled substances is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. Because nearly everyone who receives the new charge will require a public defender, Oregon judges warned the bill will further overburden public defender caseloads at a time when people are already being released due to lack of counsel. The most common result of this bill will likely be that police arrest primarily Black and Indigenous people for drug possession, the court dismisses their charges due to lack of counsel, and people return to the street after experiencing a major life disruption and without any services or treatment.
“Criminalization will not solve the issues on the street because it does not address why people are homeless and unsheltered,” Frederique said. “Many people cycle in and out of jail, ending up back on the street after an arrest without meaningful connection to support or care. Criminalization also increases overdose risk, increases racial disparities in the criminal legal system, disrupts treatment for those who seek it and saddles people with criminal records that will serve as barriers to jobs, housing and other services for the rest of their lives. Criminalization has long played a contributing role to what we are experiencing on the streets in the past and today. We cannot arrest or punish our way out of this problem, and we can’t leave people to suffer on the streets. State leaders need to focus on providing more resources for the services and supports that Oregon communities desperately need, not returning to failed drug war approaches.”
“Criminalizing people for addiction will never be an effective pathway to recovery,” said Dr. Kimberly Sue, assistant professor of Medicine and Public Health at Yale University School of Medicine. “Effective solutions treat addiction like the public health issue it is by offering a wide range of accessible voluntary care that connects people to the services they need – that’s what Measure 110 did. We can’t reverse engineer prisons into treatment centers or police into health care providers, nor should we try. To truly heal communities, people need care, not handcuffs.”
“As a career law enforcement professional, I know that relying on police to address drug use is a losing battle,” said Lt. Diane Goldstein (Ret.), executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP). “This bill relies on police officers in Oregon to solve the homelessness crisis. That is not their job, nor are they equipped or qualified to do it. Police are already overwhelmed and overstretched. More police isn’t the answer. We need to connect people to the care they need, and the first step toward making that happen is decriminalization.”
“Oregon groups that represent Black, brown, low-income, immigrant and refugee, and rural communities repeatedly attempted to engage with state leaders – reminding them that recriminalizing drug possession will inflict unconscionable government harm and violence on our historically-marginalized neighbors. Thousands of Oregonians sent messages to lawmakers opposing recriminalization. We were largely ignored. This bill is about law-and-order political theater and lawmakers bowing down to the pressure tactics of a billionaire-backed interest group led by a former prison chief and current prosecutor. It is not data-driven, solutions-oriented policy. Sadly, the goal is not about creating healing and thriving communities,” said Sandy Chung, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon.
To understand what really happened in Oregon and with Measure 110, click here.
###
About the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)
The Drug Policy Alliance is the leading organization in the U.S. working to end the drug war, repair its harms and build a non-punitive, equitable and regulated drug market. We envision a world that embraces the full humanity of people, regardless of their relationship to drugs. We advocate that the regulation of drugs be grounded in evidence, health, equity and human rights. In collaboration with other movements and at every policy level, we change laws, advance justice and save lives. Learn more at drugpolicy.org.
You nailed it again, Jeff. When will common sense, law abiding, morality seeking citizens recognize that big money and social media influence requires much more scrutiny? So many failing liberal policies will take decades to reverse.
The Oregon legislature failed the people once again. Measure 110 should be fully repealed, all monies accounted for, government and NGO offices held to account for their actions. What I am not sure of is if the measure should be returned to the voter for round two. I say this because we have not had fair and clean elections since 1998 when vote by mail was implemented by measure 60. Like measure 110, the people voted for convenience, the legislature continues to give us something else. Every session the screws are tightened against honest elections. The results are painfully obvious in the mortuaries daily.
Oregonians aren't stupid, maybe a little too trusting with a slight libertarian bent, many thought a little 'weed' was fine, just like a glass of wine. That morphed into measure 110 with a little mushroom action thrown in, that nearly killed 83 passengers on their way to San Fran. The 'unintended' consequences of free hard drug usage is now in the record books. How any politician can justify anything but full repeal is beyond me. This drug pandemic is fully worthy of an executive action, a full stop and reversal. At least a two year hiatus to slow the curve.
Unfortunately I don't expect any such thing coming from Salem, too many pols tainted by dirty money. SoS Fagan is only the first to fall on her drug sword. Maybe Val Hoyle will be next. It looks like Wyden will skate on the FTX phony money scheme.
Oregon is in deep trouble, the short legislative session shows just how much trouble we are in.
DAs will still be free to prosecute nobody for drugs if they choose. Don’t count on Multco’s DA Mike Schmidt cracking down on drugs any more than he does now. Vote for Nathan Vasquez to replace him.
This is a whitewash. The politicians bowed to all the special interests and particularly the non profit money machine. This doesn’t even go into effect until 9/1. Read the economic reports coming out of Portland, it may never recover from this, at least not in my lifetime. The state is literally spending millions of dollars on this, all the while local government continues to add new “fees” wherever they can as they proclaim to be “short” of funds for services.
I’m willing to bet if a full repeal of 110 was on the May ballot it would pass by a larger margin than the original measure did in 2020.
It’s time for a massive change Oregon.
A thousand dead bodies pave the way for their little experiment and in the 3-4 years to disentangle ourselves from the meaningless HB 4002 almost as many or will die.
Measure 110 was the fully funded national experiment of Soros' Drug Policy Alliance. HB 4002 is a very lightly modified knock-of, hence the enthusiastic support of lightweights like Kropf, Lieber, Smith, and the rejection by those Democrats in total thrall of DPA - Prozanski and Valderrama.
In 2027 we'll be back, counting OD's in five digits annually...again!
they are still here. and they still have millions of dollars. do NOT relax.
Great summary, Jeff.
The root problem is the repeated failure of Oregon (and particularly Portland) voters to think about what they are voting for...flimflam, in most instances. And putting ghastly pols in office and keeping them there for life. And allowing the creation of one of the most stifling, corrupt poltical machines in the country.
You get what you vote for.
Outstanding article so many issues, to paraphrase the infamous PT Barnum Nobody has gone broke underestimating the intelligence of the average Oregon voter. I hope this "correction" is effective. I fear it is as Josh Marquis commented in today's Willamette Week apologetics of measure 110 that it is largerly an ineffective bandaid designed more to keep the peasants from their torches and pitchforks than actually structured to be successful. As the to phenomenally corrupt nexus between the permenant ruling party and "nonprofit" baksheesh I continue to hope for the voters great awakening
A small step on the road to recovery, which, for Oregon, is more like a leap! I’m thankful for that. Elsewhere, the Legislature is now trying to limit our choices of health care plans (HB 4130). The end goal is to have a single-payer insurance plan. Controlled of course by the State. And then there’s SB 1583 that would limit the say of parents and school boards in the kinds of sexual books and other materials in our K-8 schools. Again, our Democrat betters know best. No end to their mischief.
Jeff, great job in giving credit to Oregon legislature’s imperfect but well meaning change to a bad law. Also, a quiet thanks to the governor for temporarily slowing our naive ‘fentanyl purchasing program’—which allows addicts to take cans and bottles from recycling bins and cash them in at Safeway and Plaid Pantry.
Here's the Drug Policy Alliance's (DPA) March 1, 2024, scare piece about Oregon's repudiation of the DPA's failed experiment in decriminalization.
See if you can spot the outright lies, half-truths, straw men and other bad-faith arguments. The purpose of this exercise isn't just to document the DPA's dishonesty. No, there's an audience for this propaganda in Oregon, including progressive legislators, activists and progressive voters. They're not going to stop agitating for re-decriminalizaton. To defeat the DPA and its proxies, opponents of decriminalization will need to be able to refute each and every one of the DPA's arguments.
More than anything else, the DPA is hoping to be able to tell the world that in post-M110 Oregon, addicts are detoxing and even dying in cold jail cells without access to treatment while they await stiff prison sentences.
The best way to stop the DPA and its allies from selling Oregonians a "false bill of goods" again is to make sure that Oregon disappoints them by:
1. NOT "[doubling] down on the failed approach of . . . jailing people for drug possession." Going forward, if anyone is jailed for simple possession, it should only be because they and not the system have failed themselves.
and
2. Making sure that people struggling with drug use get consistent and reasonable access to treatment in lieu of incarceration.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oregon Set to Recriminalize Drugs, Return to Failed Approach of Arresting, Jailing People for Possession
Press Release March 1, 2024
Media Contact
Brian Pacheco
Salem, OR – Today, the Oregon Senate voted to pass House Bill (HB) 4002, which recriminalizes drug possession and doubles down on the failed approach of arresting and jailing people for drug possession. The bill is a disappointing setback for the hard-won progress achieved through Measure 110 — the state’s pioneering drug decriminalization law overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2020. It is also a false bill of goods: people struggling with drug use will go to jail and not get treatment. Lawmakers passed HB 4002 after Oregonians demonstrated widespread opposition to the legislation’s recriminalization of drugs as a response to public suffering. Now it’s expected to move on to Gov. Tina Kotek, who said she will sign it into law.
“Today, politicians blamed an innovative policy in its infancy for decades of their own ineffectiveness,” said Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “The fact is that drug decriminalization worked to reduce the harms of criminalization. It is Oregon leaders that didn’t work. Their chronic underfunding of affordable housing, effective addiction services and accessible health care are to blame for the heartbreaking public suffering seen in Oregon’s streets. And there is not a shred of evidence supporting claims that Measure 110 increased homelessness, overdose or crime rates. Recriminalizing drugs is a false promise of change to distract from politicians’ incompetence as they approach reelection.”
As demonstrated in a recent ProPublica investigation, Oregon government agencies were negligent in implementing Measure 110 as the law was initially designed and passed by voters, allowing opponents to falsely claim it as a failure, and paving the way for drugs to be recriminalized. To support this tactic, proponents of HB 4002 promoted inaccurate and misleading claims connecting decriminalization with increased overdose rates within the state.
“Today, HB 4002 is being touted as a compromise, but we ask at the cost to whom? It is an unacceptable compromise when we know that there will be disparate impacts to Oregonians of color. It is not enough to monitor the system when we know it is a system that has bias built into it. I fear that we will be back next year, hearing those stories of harm, figuring out how to make our communities whole,” said Jennifer Parrish Taylor, director of advocacy and public policy of the Urban League of Portland.
Despite the poor and slow implementation, Measure 110 made strides in what it intended to do by dramatically reducing the harms of criminalization by limiting arrests, criminal records and the barriers to jobs and housing that come with those records; and increasing access to and engagement with lifesaving services. Even proponents of HB 4002 acknowledge that the measure was successful in these ways, as the bill specifically stipulates that services only made possible by Measure 110 will remain in place, and with good reason. Measure 110 resulted in over $300 million to expand addiction services in its first two years alone, resulting in dramatic increases in the number of clients accessing the addiction services and social supports they need, including substance use disorder treatment, housing services and overdose prevention services.
HB 4002 abandons the goal of a public health approach to drug use and addiction in Oregon by treating it as a crime. Under the bill, possession of small amounts of controlled substances is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. Because nearly everyone who receives the new charge will require a public defender, Oregon judges warned the bill will further overburden public defender caseloads at a time when people are already being released due to lack of counsel. The most common result of this bill will likely be that police arrest primarily Black and Indigenous people for drug possession, the court dismisses their charges due to lack of counsel, and people return to the street after experiencing a major life disruption and without any services or treatment.
“Criminalization will not solve the issues on the street because it does not address why people are homeless and unsheltered,” Frederique said. “Many people cycle in and out of jail, ending up back on the street after an arrest without meaningful connection to support or care. Criminalization also increases overdose risk, increases racial disparities in the criminal legal system, disrupts treatment for those who seek it and saddles people with criminal records that will serve as barriers to jobs, housing and other services for the rest of their lives. Criminalization has long played a contributing role to what we are experiencing on the streets in the past and today. We cannot arrest or punish our way out of this problem, and we can’t leave people to suffer on the streets. State leaders need to focus on providing more resources for the services and supports that Oregon communities desperately need, not returning to failed drug war approaches.”
“Criminalizing people for addiction will never be an effective pathway to recovery,” said Dr. Kimberly Sue, assistant professor of Medicine and Public Health at Yale University School of Medicine. “Effective solutions treat addiction like the public health issue it is by offering a wide range of accessible voluntary care that connects people to the services they need – that’s what Measure 110 did. We can’t reverse engineer prisons into treatment centers or police into health care providers, nor should we try. To truly heal communities, people need care, not handcuffs.”
“As a career law enforcement professional, I know that relying on police to address drug use is a losing battle,” said Lt. Diane Goldstein (Ret.), executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP). “This bill relies on police officers in Oregon to solve the homelessness crisis. That is not their job, nor are they equipped or qualified to do it. Police are already overwhelmed and overstretched. More police isn’t the answer. We need to connect people to the care they need, and the first step toward making that happen is decriminalization.”
“Oregon groups that represent Black, brown, low-income, immigrant and refugee, and rural communities repeatedly attempted to engage with state leaders – reminding them that recriminalizing drug possession will inflict unconscionable government harm and violence on our historically-marginalized neighbors. Thousands of Oregonians sent messages to lawmakers opposing recriminalization. We were largely ignored. This bill is about law-and-order political theater and lawmakers bowing down to the pressure tactics of a billionaire-backed interest group led by a former prison chief and current prosecutor. It is not data-driven, solutions-oriented policy. Sadly, the goal is not about creating healing and thriving communities,” said Sandy Chung, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon.
To understand what really happened in Oregon and with Measure 110, click here.
###
About the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)
The Drug Policy Alliance is the leading organization in the U.S. working to end the drug war, repair its harms and build a non-punitive, equitable and regulated drug market. We envision a world that embraces the full humanity of people, regardless of their relationship to drugs. We advocate that the regulation of drugs be grounded in evidence, health, equity and human rights. In collaboration with other movements and at every policy level, we change laws, advance justice and save lives. Learn more at drugpolicy.org.
https://drugpolicy.org/news/oregon-set-to-recriminalize-drugs-return-to-failed-approach-of-arresting-jailing-people-for-possession/
You nailed it again, Jeff. When will common sense, law abiding, morality seeking citizens recognize that big money and social media influence requires much more scrutiny? So many failing liberal policies will take decades to reverse.
The Oregon legislature failed the people once again. Measure 110 should be fully repealed, all monies accounted for, government and NGO offices held to account for their actions. What I am not sure of is if the measure should be returned to the voter for round two. I say this because we have not had fair and clean elections since 1998 when vote by mail was implemented by measure 60. Like measure 110, the people voted for convenience, the legislature continues to give us something else. Every session the screws are tightened against honest elections. The results are painfully obvious in the mortuaries daily.
Oregonians aren't stupid, maybe a little too trusting with a slight libertarian bent, many thought a little 'weed' was fine, just like a glass of wine. That morphed into measure 110 with a little mushroom action thrown in, that nearly killed 83 passengers on their way to San Fran. The 'unintended' consequences of free hard drug usage is now in the record books. How any politician can justify anything but full repeal is beyond me. This drug pandemic is fully worthy of an executive action, a full stop and reversal. At least a two year hiatus to slow the curve.
Unfortunately I don't expect any such thing coming from Salem, too many pols tainted by dirty money. SoS Fagan is only the first to fall on her drug sword. Maybe Val Hoyle will be next. It looks like Wyden will skate on the FTX phony money scheme.
Oregon is in deep trouble, the short legislative session shows just how much trouble we are in.