What Will the End of the Drug War Mean for Addicts? Look to Oregon.
Channel: ReasonTV
Date: 2021-08-06

Small-scale drug possession is now a $100 infraction that can be dismissed with a call to a drug abuse assessment hotline.

Full text and links: https://reason.com/video/2021/08/06/oregon-decriminalized-all-drugs-to-stop-overdoses-will-it-work/
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In 1973, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize marijuana use, setting in motion a movement that has led to the unraveling of the disastrous U.S. drug war—with far-reaching consequences.

Today, Oregon is once again at the vanguard of reform: In February, it enacted a law ending prison and jail sentences for all types of drug use and possession, whether it be cocaine, meth, heroin, or psychedelics.

In 2019, before this new law was passed in a state-wide referendum, more than 4,000 people were convicted of drug possession in Oregon, and many more cut deals with prosecutors, allowing them to avoid a conviction in exchange for supervised probation and some rehab.

With the new law, not only does possession bring nothing more than a $100 ticket, defendants can get them dismissed if they place just one phone call to a drug abuse assessment hotline. So far, only 29 people ticketed for possession have placed that call, according to the nonprofit that runs the hotline.

"That's the downside, the lack of accountability built into the measure," says Mike Marshall, executive director of the Oregon Recovers, which lobbies for more funding for addiction treatment, and opposed Measure 110.

"I'm worried about the person living on the street, in the tent, right outside this window who's smoking meth all day long" says Marshall "We need to have a system of care to take care of them."

But Haven Wheelock, who runs a needle exchange in Portland called Outside In, says delaying decriminalization would have been morally unacceptable.

"Anything we do is better than doing nothing, and we know the harms of criminalization are harming people on the regular," says Wheelock. "We know that these interactions between law enforcement and people who are using drugs can be deadly. And so for me, decriminalizing drugs is a priority in and of itself. Those harms are real. Those harms are happening today."

Monta Knudson, executive director of Bridges to Change, which helps drug offenders who've recently been released from jail or prison transition into housing and reintegrate into society, says that the new law will greatly expand treatment access. Bridges to Change is one of several non-profits that will receive additional money through Measure 110, financed by cannabis taxes, to provide services to drug users before they enter the criminal justice system.

"We want to interrupt that prison [and] jail cycle and offer services instead," says Knudson.

As a former drug user, however, Knudson did find treatment through the criminal justice system. He struggled for years with a meth addiction and was arrested dozens of times. After a 2-year prison stint for crimes related to his drug problem, he was released to a rehab program that provided the help he needed.

"The deeper my addiction grew, in those windows of time where I wanted and needed help, help wasn't to be found in a way that was accessible to me," says Janie Gullickson, executive director of a peer support group called the Mental Health and Addiction Association of Oregon. "[Treatment] finally was accessible in prison, which is backwards in my mind." 

Gullickson overcame a meth addiction that began at age 15 and continued until she ended up in prison at age 36. As a chief petitioner for Measure 110, she agrees that there are better ways to get drug addicts treatment than through the criminal justice system.

"I did want treatment. And I had been in [prison] for a year before I was accepted into the [prison drug treatment program]," says Gullickson. "And, God, I wish this program, would have been accessible to me before I wasn't able to raise my five kids."

And while Oregon's 1973 marijuana decriminalization was decades ahead of its time, proponents believe that if the state succeeds now, the wave of complete drug decriminalization will spread across the entire country much sooner.

Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Camera by John Osterhoudt. Additional B-roll by Mark McDaniel and Jim Epstein. 

Photo Credits: David Tesinsky/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Luis Nunes/Sipa USA/Newscom; Tommaso Salvia/Newscom;  Governor Tom Wolf Flickr; Teun Voeten/Sipa USA/Newscom; Photo 42887135 © Ocusfocus | Dreamstime.com