Oregon rolls back decriminalization of drugs. But is it too soon?

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In Oregon, where a first-in-the-nation effort to decriminalize the possession and use of many drugs is coming to an end, three years after voters put it into effect. Gov. Tina Kotek signed a law Monday that will effectively roll back the policy starting in September.

The reversal comes amid a growing number of overdose deaths in the state, along with public concerns about crime and homelessness. Critics of the new law said the state never provided enough treatment services for people with substance abuse or addiction problems, and many people who could benefit from treatment never sought it because the penalty for possession of illicit drugs was only a ticket with a maximum fine of $100.

“There’s no question that the state botched the implementation,” Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler told The New York Times. “And as I say, the timing couldn’t have been worse. In terms of the botched implementation: To decriminalize the use of drugs before you actually had the treatment services in place was obviously a huge mistake.”

But others noted that overdoses, particularly of fentanyl, have overwhelmed other states that did not loosen their drug laws.

“You were not the only state in America to have, at some terrible point in your history, a huge jump in overdose deaths,” Brandon del Pozo, a Brown University professor of medicine and a former police officer, told Oregon lawmakers in January. “That happens in a lot of states. It takes this precipitous rise, almost like a rocket ship taking off. When you look at the fentanyl model in those states’ drug supply, you see the same thing.”

Oregon’s new law would still be among the most liberal in the country. People charged with possession of small amounts of certain controlled substances will face up to six months in prison. But they can avoid jail time by instead getting treatment.

The new punishments will apply to people caught with cocaine, fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine. Marijuana is still considered legal in the state, as are psilocybin mushrooms used for therapeutic use.

But critics warned that the new penalties would cause unnecessary harm. The law, the ACLU of Oregon warned last month, “will increase racial disparities in our state and leave Oregon communities without help and support while fentanyl continues to harm our loved ones.”

“HB 4002 is being touted as a compromise, but we ask at the cost to whom?” said Jennifer Parrish Taylor, the director of advocacy and public policy for the Urban League of Portland. “It is an unacceptable compromise when we know that there will be disparate impacts to Oregonians of color. It is not enough to monitor the system when we know it is a system that has bias built into it. I fear that we will be back next year, hearing those stories of harm, figuring out how to make our communities whole.”

The Health Justice Recovery Alliance, which backed the 2020 ballot measure to decriminalize hard drugs in the state, said that the repeal did not mean the ballot measure itself was a failure. “The failure lies in the state’s inability to implement the law and meet Oregon’s addiction crisis with the urgency it demands,” the group said in a statement.

The new law creates a “new, complicated system” that will require a lot of coordination to roll out successfully, it added.

“We must not lose sight of our shared goal to create a system of care that works for everyone, is available on-demand and ensures that communities most-impacted by drug war policies are given the resources to heal,” the group said.

Indeed, Kotek sent a letter to legislative leaders as she signed the law to detail her concerns about how it will be carried out. She said law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys and behavioral health providers need to be involved with the design of “deflection” programs that give police options other than arrest for people using drugs. The governor said the law will require more lawyers to give poor defendants their constitutional right to an attorney at trial, at a time when public defenders are already in short supply. Kotek also added that the prison system needs to develop a way to monitor people who leave lockup to get treatment.

Legislative analysts predicted that the law would result in more than 1,300 people being convicted of drug possession every year, and more than 500 of them would go to jail.

Law enforcement groups pushed for the changes to the 2020 measure, but they also said that punishment alone would not solve the upswing in fentanyl deaths.

“We cannot and should not attempt to arrest our way out of this issue,” Portland police Sgt. Aaron Schmautz, the president of the Portland Police Association, told lawmakers last fall. “Anything that we do needs to be centered on treatment and diversion … The only options police officers have now are walking away or jail—and those are just not sufficient.”

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News to Use

Trends, Common Challenges, Cool Ideas, FYIs and Notable Events

• ENERGY: Staggering growth in US solar and wind power over the last decade. Nearly a quarter of the nation's grid now runs on renewables, bringing the country closer to its clean energy goals. Solar and wind power have been the fastest growing sources of energy over the past decade. Coal power has declined sharply, and the use of methane to generate electricity has all but leveled off, according to a report released on Wednesday by the nonprofit Climate Central. The vast majority of the nation’s solar capacity comes from utility-scale installations, but panels installed on rooftops, parking lots and other comparatively small sites contributed a combined 48,000 megawatts across the country.


• FINANCE: Is Houston “broke”? No, says city controller, but time is running out. Just days after Houston Mayor John Whitmire exclaimed, "We are broke," the city's controller said—not yet. Houston City Controller Chris Hollins said the city has one year to determine how to overcome expected financial shortfalls and balance its budget. The urgency from the city's chief financial officer comes as Whitmire tries to get enough votes to pass a $650 million firefighters' union contract, which includes back pay and a 34% pay raise over the next five years. Hollins said the proposed deal would cost up to $1.3 billion after accounting for legal fees and interests. According to the city's proposal, the settlement would take 25 to 30 years to pay out. Some ways the city could offset the budget deficit are implementing a garbage tax, raising property taxes, or consolidating city personnel, which may lead to layoffs in city services.


• ABORTION: Florida Supreme Court allows rigid 6-week ban; clears abortion-rights amendment for ballot. The Florida Supreme Court released two blockbuster rulings on abortion rights on Monday—one that within a few weeks will allow a ban on the procedure after six weeks’ gestation to take effect, and another allowing the voters to decide in November whether to amend the Florida Constitution to protect access to the procedure. The effect is a split decision, curbing abortion rights but giving voters the final say.


• ​​WORKFORCE: How Gen Z is becoming the toolbelt generation. Long beset by a labor crunch, the skilled trades are newly appealing to the youngest cohort of American workers, many of whom are choosing to leave the college path, reports The Wall Street Journal. Rising pay and new technologies in fields from welding to machine tooling are giving trade professions a face-lift, helping them shed the image of being dirty, low-end work. Growing skepticism about the return on a college education, the cost of which has soared in recent decades, is adding to their shine. The number of students enrolled in vocational-focused community colleges rose 16% last year to its highest level since the National Student Clearinghouse began tracking such data in 2018. The ranks of students studying construction trades rose 23% during that time, while those in programs covering HVAC and vehicle maintenance and repair increased 7%.


• ADDICTION: Can Denver’s mayor keep drug users out of jail? Here’s his new plan to fix a decades-old problem. Mayor Mike Johnston has devoted much of his focus to homelessness since taking office in July, now he’s turning his attention to the next persistent problem. He said he wants to help people who have acute mental health and drug use challenges that contribute to them cycling through the city’s jails, emergency rooms and homeless shelters. Called Roads to Recovery, the program looks to by the end of the year divert 200 people who are struggling with addiction or mental health challenges out of the criminal justice system and into a city-coordinated pipeline of intervention, treatment and rehabilitation support.


• CLIMATE CHANGE: Vermont bill would adopt a “polluter pays” model to combat climate change. Lawmakers in Vermont are advancing legislation requiring big fossil fuel companies to pay into a program funding climate change adaptation projects. In this “polluter pays” model, the companies’ share would be applied to such things as upgrading stormwater drainage systems; upgrading roads, bridges and railroads; relocating, elevating or retrofitting sewage treatment plants and making energy efficient weatherization upgrades to public and private buildings. Critics, including Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who is up against a veto-proof Democratic majority, warn that it could be a costly legal battle for the small state to go first. Maryland, Massachusetts and New York are considering similar measures.


• SAFETY: Dozens of groups call on Florida governor to veto bill denying heat protections for outdoor workers. Environmental, faith and progressive groups are calling on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto legislation that would ban local governments from requiring employers to provide protections for outdoor workers who toil in extreme heat. “Preempting local governments’ ability to protect workers from climate-caused extreme heat is inhumane and will have enormous negative economic impacts when lost productivity is taken into account,” reads a letter sent out by 43 different groups on March 29. Besides the health risk to workers, “the bill leaves hundreds of thousands of workers across the state with less oversight and protection, just as the state faces a labor shortage,” another 45 groups wrote in a letter. Republicans and business officials dispute the need for such laws, saying that employers are already protecting their workers who toil in the heat.


• WORKFORCE: The Maryland governor’s big experiment. Moore has a lot on his plate in the wake of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore harbor, but he remains bullish on a centerpiece of his administration: the newly established Department of Service and Civic Innovation. It includes a public service program with two arms, the Service Year Option, for Maryland residents within three years of high school graduation, and Maryland Corps, which is open to a range of applicants. Each provides access to entry-level positions at nonprofits and state agencies, as well as a small number of businesses with a strong service component. It is small, but given its bipartisan support, the department is hoping to grow the program from 200 to 2,000 service year participants by 2026.


• CONSUMER PROTECTION: Oregon now has one of the nation’s strongest “right to repair” laws. The new law requires companies that make cellphones and other consumer electronics to provide the tools and know-how to repair those devices. At least three other states have passed similar laws, but proponents say Oregon’s stands out because it takes on the practice of parts pairing, where manufacturers like Apple disable some functions of a device if owners make repairs with an unauthorized part. Oregon’s law kicks in next year, but enforcement won’t begin until 2027.


• FOURTH ESTATE: Raided Kansas newspaper sues officials for attack on free press. The Marion County Record has filed a federal lawsuit against local authorities who planned and carried out the raid last year of the newspaper office and publisher’s home, accusing the “co-conspirators” of seeking revenge for unfavorable news coverage through falsified and invalid search warrants. The lawsuit claims defendants violated the First Amendment freedom of the press, the Fourth Amendment prohibition on warrantless searches, and federal and state laws that protect journalists—and their sources—from police raids. The lawsuit doesn’t specify the damages being sought, but the newspaper indicated it intends to file additional claims, including one for the wrongful death of the publisher’s 98-year-old mother who died 24 hours after police raided her home.


• AI: Washington state judge blocks use of AI-enhanced video as evidence. In what may be a first-of-its-kind ruling, a judge overseeing a triple murder case in Washington state barred the use of video enhanced by artificial intelligence as evidence. The ruling described the technology as novel and said it relies on "opaque methods to represent what the AI model 'thinks' should be shown." The ruling further determined “that admission of this Al-enhanced evidence would lead to a confusion of the issues and a muddling of eyewitness testimony, and could lead to a time-consuming trial within a trial about the non-peer-reviewable-process used by the AI model.”


• ELECTIONS: Will Maine join the popular vote compact for presidential elections? Maine is one step closer to awarding its electoral votes for president to the winner of the national popular vote. The Senate approved the bill on Wednesday after the House of Representatives passed it by one vote the day prior. Gov. Janet Mills, who has not said where she stands on the proposal, has 10 days to either sign, veto or allow the bill to become law without her signature. Since 2007, 16 states and the District of Columbia have agreed to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. That group makes up 205 electoral votes. Eleven other states, including Maine, are considering switching to this.


• WORKFORCE: California Legislature considers a bill granting the “right to disconnect.” A bill has been introduced in the California Legislature that would give employees the "right to disconnect" from their jobs during nonworking hours. Employees could ignore communications during nonworking hours "except for an emergency or for scheduling, as defined." Both public and private employers would be required to create a workplace policy that also establishes nonworking hours. If repeatedly violated, employees could file a complaint with the state labor department, which would be punishable by a fine. If passed, California would be the first state to create a "right to disconnect" for employees. Similar laws have already been enacted in 13 countries, including Australia, Argentina, Belgium, France, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and Spain.

Picture of the Week

April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and as part of its Vision Zero efforts to eliminate all traffic fatalities and injuries, Washington, D.C., has installed two new mobile traffic safety devices that will be used to detect distracted driving and flash a warning to drivers. The devices consist of electronic signs mounted on small trailers and equipped with LIDAR laser sensing technology, which relies on heat signatures to detect if a cellphone is in the driver’s hand. It also discerns whether the pupils of the driver’s eyes are fixed on the road or looking elsewhere. The sensor alerts the electronic sign which can display the message: “Put your phone down.” The traffic safety devices are essentially driver feedback signs. They don’t issue citations.

Government in Numbers

Nearly 2,700

The number of books targeted for restriction or removal in Florida schools and public libraries in 2023, according to data released by the American Library Association. That’s the most of any state and 1,200 more than Texas, which had the second-most challenges. The ALA emphasizes that its data just provides a snapshot, made up only of challenges found in news reports and reported to the organization by librarians. But it still shows the far-reaching effects of laws signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The governor and GOP lawmakers in recent years have passed a couple of measures about the books on school shelves and how the public can get them removed. School districts have interpreted the laws in wildly varying ways, leading some to pull hundreds of titles out of fear of potential penalties, and others to pull none. Free speech group PEN America ranked Florida No. 1 in book bans last year.