A Portland trial lawyer said the Oregon Legislature’s decision to recriminalize drugs could spell major changes for the deep-blue state.
“It’s not progressive to just let people rot in the gutter,” Kristin Olson, a trial lawyer and host of the Portland podcast “Rational,” told Fox News. “Intervention has left the building. Intervention is back. I think this is a big deal.”
A woman and her boyfriend prepare to smoke fentanyl foil in downtown Portland on January 23, 2024. Oregon voters chose to decriminalize possession of small amounts of drugs in the November 2020 election. Three years after the pioneering law went into effect, lawmakers have once again criminalized drug possession. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
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Oregon became the first (and only) state in the nation to decriminalize possession of small amounts of any drug in early 2021 after 58% of voters approved Measure 110. But as overdose deaths and outdoor drug use skyrocket, many polls show support among Oregonians is declining. Many believed this law would lead to increased treatment for addiction.
Instead, the vast majority of people given $100 tickets for drug possession simply throw away the ticket and the phone number for an addiction treatment hotline.
House Bill 4002 Creates a new misdemeanor drug possession charge, giving those caught with small amounts of drugs such as meth or fentanyl the option of receiving treatment or spending up to six months in prison. Treatment includes behavioral health screening and participation in state-funded diversion programs.
Numerous surveys show that Oregonians support recriminalizing hard drugs and making treatment mandatory rather than optional to avoid prison time. (Ramiro Vargas/Fox News Digital)
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Those convicted of possession may also have their records automatically expunged.
Republicans and Democrats initially proposed competing bills, but the final bill was a compromise between the parties and passed both chambers last week.
“I’m actually impressed with the Oregon Legislature,” Olson said. “I don’t think they were willing to compromise on anything.”
Olson said Congress has greenlit “pretty far-left policies” in recent years, such as allowing minors to undergo gender reassignment surgery and obtain abortions without parental consent. A bill passed in 2021 would require schools to provide free tampons in all bathrooms, regardless of gender.
So relaxing the nation’s most progressive drug laws is a “huge success,” Olson said.
“This shows that the Overton window is changing, that the silent majority is no longer silent, and that Congress is actually listening to us,” she added.
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The George Soros-backed Drug Policy Alliance has poured millions of dollars into the Bill 110 campaign, blaming the law for failing to address the “housing crisis,” overdoses and other “national suffering.” He blamed the lawmakers.
“Recriminalization of drugs will not solve the crisis of catastrophic public suffering in the OR,” the alliance wrote about X. “On the contrary, it is likely to increase preventable overdose deaths, widen racial disparities in incarceration rates, and make life harder for Black, brown, and poor people.” Communities accessing life-saving services This is to make it possible. ”
The Drug Policy Alliance did not respond to requests for an interview.
The state’s ACLU said “lawmakers have deliberately set us back” by choosing to send our most vulnerable neighbors to prison rather than treatment. Oregon nonprofit organization Groups that support incarcerated people have already warned that they could go to court to block the bill.
Gov. Tina Kotek (D) has not said whether she intends to sign the bill, but has previously said she is open to drug recriminalization as long as the Legislature’s main focus is expanding treatment options. .
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Many lawmakers have blamed Measure 110 for Oregon’s staggering increase in overdose deaths, but researchers, including Dr. Alex Krall of RTI International, found no connection. . Oregon’s spike in overdose deaths coincided with the arrival of fentanyl on the West Coast around 2018 and the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns in 2020.
“From a scientific perspective, it seems certain that M110 is not making crime or overdose deaths worse,” Krall said. Willamette Week.
From September 2022 to September 2023, reported drug overdoses increased more in Washington (38.27%) than in Oregon (32.85%), according to the report. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Olson acknowledged that it is difficult to determine the impact of Measure 110 on overdose deaths, but said the law would have a devastating impact not only on public safety and livability, but also on the families of drug addicts. He said he is giving.
“We’ve normalized public smoking of fentanyl,” Olson said. “My kids are 10 and 12 years old, and they know what fentanyl smells like.”
A police officer holds a small container of suspected fentanyl powder in Portland, Oregon. (Hannah Rae Lambert/Fox News Digital)
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Olson said he believes the new law “will take time” to take effect, noting that Portland, where the drug problem is most prevalent, continues to have a police shortage. But she is optimistic about the state’s new trajectory.
“I think people in Portland are done with all that.” [far left] “Oregonians are done with such policies,” she said. We are recriminalizing drugs. …We are hiring all the police officers we can get. ”
