Drugs

As a long-time supporter of decriminalising drugs - without having thought too carefully about the different issues involved in possession and supply - I was sorry to read that the State of Oregon has repealed the part of the 2020 measure known as Measure 110 which decriminalised the possession of certain hard drugs. The possession and supply of marijuana will remain legal. This from reference 1.

It seems that what sank the measure was the massive increase which followed in the public use of hard drugs, particularly the synthetic opioid drug fentanyl, in overdose, in homelessness and of violence on the streets, particularly those of Portland, a river port city of more than 500,000 people, the largest in the state. One of the drivers of the measure was the need to stop making criminals of so many black people.

Measure 110 replaced criminalising the possession of certain hard drugs with the provision of support to help people get off them, support to be paid for from a share of the tax revenue from marijuana business. I think the idea was that the county level 'Behavioral Health Resource Networks' should lead on support, with one such being the people at reference 5. 

With hindsight, more attention should have been paid to getting that support up and running before decriminalisation kicked in. And most people in Oregon now believe that the stick of criminality is needed to back up the carrot of support - and the repeal appears to be doing that, while not turning the clock right back.

Wikipedia tells us something of Measure 110 at reference 2. The State tells us something of the support provided at references 3 and 4.

The only text of the measure that I have found is the curious document at reference 6, which looks to me rather like work in progress, rather than a finished document. Quite a lot of space is given to the details of the distribution of marijuana tax revenue to relevant good causes. 

While I believe the biggest advocate for legalisation is to be round at reference 7. I have not dug down to what they think about the situation in Oregon.

In sum, if I have not changed my mind, I do allow that it is all more complicated than I had hoped or thought.

References

Reference 1: Oregon Is Recriminalizing Drugs. Here’s What Portland Learned: Oregon’s governor has signed a measure to reimpose criminal penalties for hard drugs. Mayor Ted Wheeler of Portland talks about why the experiment “failed.” - Mike Baker, New York Times - 2024.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Oregon_Ballot_Measure_110.

Reference 3: https://www.oregon.gov/OHA/HSD/AMH/Pages/Measure110.aspx.

Reference 4: https://www.oregon.gov/oha/HSD/AMH/Docs/Measure-110-Individual-Fact-Sheet.pdf.

Reference 5: https://ccswebsite.org/bhrn/. The source of the snap above.

Reference 6: https://sos.oregon.gov/admin/Documents/irr/2020/044text.pdf.

Reference 7: https://drugpolicy.org/.