Oregon was the first state to decriminalize drug possession. As overdose deaths rise, many want a repeal

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A little more than three years after Oregon voters made their state the first jurisdiction in North America to decriminalize drug possession, legislators are scrambling to write a new set of laws amid a public revolt against the state’s experiment with rapid drug policy liberalization.

In 2020, Oregon passed Measure 110, which eliminated criminal penalties for personal drug possession and diverted most cannabis revenue to fund drug treatment and recovery services. Audits have found that it has cut the cost of arresting and prosecuting people for simple drug possession by nearly US$20-million a year. Programs supported by its funds have provided thousands of people with help.

But in the year leading up to May, 2023, Oregon overdose deaths rose 17 per cent, far greater than the national average increase of less than 1 per cent. The state has had faster growth in teen drug deaths than any other state.

The reasons are complex, and partly linked to the arrival of fentanyl. But public opinion has badly soured on decriminalization. In 2020, nearly 60 per cent of voters supported Measure 110. Last year, polling found nearly two-thirds say they now want it partly rolled back. A majority want an outright repeal.

Now, change is coming.

Legislators in Oregon have introduced a trio of placeholder bills, and are widely expected to bring back some form of new drug penalties, although their severity and scope have yet to be finalized. The state’s drug law is expected to be a major issue in a legislative session that begins in February.

Democratic legislators, who control both houses of Congress and the governor’s office, have said more needs to be done to encourage prevention, too. Republicans have called for more sweeping change.

“Oregon has not been shy about trying new things. But in this case, in trying this new thing, we went too far,” said Kevin Mannix, an attorney who is a Republican state representative. “It was wrong-headed from the start.”

Fentanyl’s rise in rural Oregon puts decriminalization efforts to the test

British Columbia, which also decriminalized possession of small amounts of narcotics last year, has already begun to retreat. It has sought to restrict use in many public spaces, although the province’s Supreme Court imposed a temporary injunction on that change late in 2023.

Legislators in Oregon have discussed similar restrictions that would punish public use of drugs.

Governor Tina Kotek “has been outspoken on her support of a public use ban of controlled substances, the need to reduce barriers to prosecuting individuals who are selling controlled substances, and to increase access to behavioural health services,” said Elisabeth Shepard, the governor’s press secretary.

The effectiveness of Measure 110 has been a subject of immense controversy in the state. The measure replaced criminal sanctions with violation tickets, whose maximum fine of US$100 could be avoided if people sought help. But a hotline created for that purpose has had so little activity that it has cost more than US$7,000 a call.

Recipients of funds argue that the state’s statistics have not properly captured the work that is being done. In Portland, the Fresh Out Community Based Reentry Program said it has helped more than 400 people with Measure 110, in the first six months alone, “only two of whom returned to incarceration.”

“For the first time ever, thanks to Measure 110, the communities most harmed by the war on drugs are among those leading the effort toward healing our communities,” founder Larry Turner wrote last year.

Even supporters, however, acknowledge problems.

Angela Carter was Oregon’s Measure 110 program and implementation manager until she resigned last summer, citing problems in hiring sufficient staff and bureaucratic obstacles to creating a proper data and monitoring program.

But Measure 110 has funded additional provision of housing, harm reduction programs and peer support.

“The program may not be doing as well as hoped, but that’s not because the program itself is poorly built. It’s because the program was under-resourced – and, frankly, I believe it was sabotaged,” Dr. Carter said in an interview.

“Criminalization of substance use is absurd,” Dr. Carter said. “There is no data that demonstrates that putting people in jail for a mental-health concern is going to improve that mental-health concern.”

Indeed, Oregon leaders from across the political spectrum continue to broadly support the use of cannabis revenue to support drug programs. “Having a dedicated tax which is substantial can work wonders,” Mr. Mannix said.

But the campaign to alter course on decriminalization has drawn in some of the state’s most influential figures. Nike co-founder Phil Knight has joined with other prominent business figures to back a Coalition to Fix and Improve Ballot Measure 110, which has advocated for recriminalizing use of drugs like fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin, banning use of hard drugs in public spaces, and creating tougher penalties for drug dealing.

Washington State defies its neighbours and moves to enact new laws against drugs

Associations representing Oregon’s cities, police chiefs, district attorneys and sheriffs have also made a joint call for recriminalizing drug possession as a Class A misdemeanour, with a maximum sentence of one year in county jail – but with other provisions to wipe criminal records for those who get clean.

Cities want to “restore criminal justice incentives for seeking treatment for addiction, while ensuring a path for expungement when a treatment program is completed successfully,” said Dave Drotzmann, the mayor of Hermiston, Ore., who is president of the League of Oregon Cities.

“Communities are feeling like we’re seeing increased crime, as far as crimes of opportunity and theft. We’re seeing more people living on the streets. And people are frustrated with our ability to manage those situations.”

The message sent by decriminalization, he said, is also “wrong – and especially wrong to our children: that drugs are safe and that it’s okay to use them.”

Advocates of Measure 110 presented it as a way to address long-standing injustices, such as the over-representation of racialized people in drug arrests. They are skeptical of those who want to reimpose criminal punishments. “You have a police system that doesn’t want to relinquish control,” Dr. Carter said. “They lose a lot of money in the process of having arrests taken away from them.”

Police, however, argue that the current system has relegated officers to bystanders, particularly at times when other responders aren’t available.

“Oftentimes, these folks in crisis are popping up onto the radar at 2 a.m., on Christmas,” said Sergeant Aaron Schmautz, president of the Portland Police Association.

He advocates a “co-response model” that aligns police and other care providers.

Measure 110, he said, was born of a particular moment, passed during the first year of the pandemic and months after the police killing of George Floyd.

“It’s important for us all to forgive each other a bit for the things that happened in 2020, because there was a lot of stuff going on,” he said.