Abstract
By now, you and everyone else has heard: Oregon's drug decriminalization measure passed three years ago has failed — if you think of rampant overdoses and drug use with lack of treatment a failure. Portland, once, (like San Francisco), a haven for those seeking peace and high culture and a healthy lifestyle, is now ridden with people seeking easy access to drugs with no interference from law enforcement. The great champions of the measure from the harm reduction contingent, mostly residing on the East Coast, are silent. But the local media can't stop seeing what is right before their eyes. Most recently, Oregon Public Broadcasting showed in a Feb. 14 report how police officers, supposed to be “on‐ramps” to treatment, are not able to accomplish this when they encounter drug users. Treatment isn't there. It's not funded. There's no training. There is just drug use (https://www.opb.org/article/2024/02/14/oregon‐drug‐decriminalization‐plan‐measure‐110‐leadership‐failures/). The measure was passed in November 2020. In December 2020, ADAW pointed out that the decriminalization measure did not provide any increase in funding for treatment. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adaw.32905.
Published Version
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