Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed a bill Monday that recriminalizes possession of small amounts of hard drugs as the blue state continues to struggle with an overdose and addiction crisis.
Kotek took the bill to the table in early March after senators passed it on a 21-8 vote, ultimately overturning the voter-approved portion of the effort to decriminalize hard drugs. I received it at The new law includes changes to the criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of heroin or methamphetamine, which will now be considered a misdemeanor and punishable by up to six months in prison.
The bill also establishes a “task force” to focus on behavioral health, a behavioral health “workforce program,” and reduces “barriers to consumers’ access to substance use disorder treatment.” The letter states that this is also included. signed Kotek says: (Related: Oregon declares state of emergency to address fentanyl crisis after hard drug decriminalization in 2020)
“The courts, Oregon State Police, local law enforcement, public defenders, district attorneys, and local behavioral health providers are all important to these conversations and are necessary partners in achieving the vision of this bill.” wrote Kotek. “We must balance local program design with the need to achieve consistency and standardization across the state where appropriate.”
Some people are using fentanyl on Park Avenue after all drugs were decriminalized in downtown Portland. (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
In 2020, Oregon voters passed Measure 110, allowing the state to become the first state to decriminalize hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin, oxycodone, and methamphetamine. But since the bill was passed, blue states have seen an increase in both drug addiction and overdoses. Almost two years later, in 2022, overdoses in blue states increased by 20%, and in March 2023, police reported receiving 11 overdose calls per day.
“We were too progressive,” said Giovannis Velez, an Oregon outreach worker with Recovery Works Northwest. Said NBC News. “Society wasn’t ready for that.”
Supporters of Measure 110 had previously championed the bill as an opportunity to help addicts instead of sending them to prison, the report said, but improved care networks never materialized. Nearly hundreds of millions of dollars in marijuana tax revenue was supposed to go to drug treatment and harm reduction programs, but funding delays resulted in an increase in drug addiction and overdoses, according to an audit report released in 2023. It is said that Associated Press report.
