The people of Oregon voted to decriminalize possession of small amounts of hard drugs like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and other controlled substances in 2020 under Ballot Measure 110. Unsurprisingly, the social experiment failed — and now voters are looking to reverse course.
Various groups including the League of Oregon Cities, the Oregon State Sheriffs Association, the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police, and the Oregon District Attorneys Association have signed on to a letter sent to Oregon lawmakers who convened this month to address the public health and safety crisis now plaguing Oregonians.
In addition to reversing parts of Ballot Measure 110, many want to challenge the Oregon Supreme Court’s ruling which changed how prosecutors prove drug dealing. Before the ruling, dealers caught with a certain amount of drugs could be convicted on possession alone, allowing the jury to infer that the defendant possessed drugs with the intent to distribute them. Now, prosecutors must prove that a dealer actually attempted to complete a delivery.
Under Ballot Measure 110, those possessing small quantities of drugs are subject only to a maximum fine of $100, but could have it dismissed if they called a 24-hour hotline within 45 days to seek treatment. State auditors found one year after the law went into effect that only 1% of those cited called the hotline. Astonishingly, those who failed to either call the hotline or pay the fine, go unpunished.
In any event, Oregon’s decriminalization of drugs has been a disaster as overdose deaths have skyrocketed and public drug use and homelessness are out of control. Portland, a once beautiful American city, has fallen apart as businesses have fled, the quality of life has significantly diminished, and crime is rampant. Coupled with Oregon’s misguided embrace of the “defund the police” movement in 2020 after the death of George Floyd, the law-abiding public is paying the price for the naïve incompetence of the Beaver state’s leadership.
Despite the fact that Ballot Measure 110 passed with 58% support, a nonpartisan statewide poll now shows that 65% of respondents think the law made drug addiction worse, 63% say it made homelessness worse, and 63% believe it made crime worse.
Drug addiction is a disease. I get it. But it’s also a crime. Drug use lowers the quality of life for the drug user and those who must live among drug users. Drug use, possession, distribution, and trafficking are cancers upon society. While I do not object to treating those who suffer from addiction, we cannot let treatment subrogate punishment, otherwise known as — justice. We can do both, and the Oregon legislature is considering options for harsher punishment alongside adequate treatment infrastructure. Let’s help those who want help after they’ve been held to account for their crimes.
I applaud Oregon’s leadership for coming to its senses. However, let us not forget the true victims here are law-abiding citizens and businesses who fall prey to drug-induced crimes like theft, shoplifting, car break-ins, burglaries, and robberies; families, who must carry out their lives in the squalor created by rampant, unpunished, untreated drug abuse; kids who are forced to look upon society’s decay as its leaders turn a blind eye to its causes and shirk their duty.
The Beaver state can do better. Oregon is too beautiful a place to leave to the likes of those willing to gamble with its future.
John Q. Prosecutor