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Oregon pioneered a radical drug policy. Now it's reconsidering. Under Ballot
Measure 110, instead of arresting drug users, police give them a citation and
point them towards treatment. Over three years in, there's a debate about
whether it's succeeded or failed.


POLITICS


OREGON PIONEERED A RADICAL DRUG POLICY. NOW IT'S RECONSIDERING.

February 7, 20243:20 PM ET

From

By 

Conrad Wilson

OREGON PIONEERED A RADICAL DRUG POLICY. NOW IT'S RECONSIDERING.

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Enlarge this image

Officer Yoo gives a citation to a man he stopped for using fentanyl in public.
Yoo said handing out citations doesn't appear to move people from using drugs on
the streets into treatment programs. Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB hide caption

toggle caption
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB


Officer Yoo gives a citation to a man he stopped for using fentanyl in public.
Yoo said handing out citations doesn't appear to move people from using drugs on
the streets into treatment programs.

Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB

Oregon voters passed the most liberal drug law in the country in November 2020,
decriminalizing possession for small amounts of hard drugs.

Under Ballot Measure 110, instead of arresting drug users, police now give them
a citation and point them towards treatment. The law passed with 58% of the vote
and also funneled hundreds of millions of dollars in cannabis tax revenue to
fund new recovery programs.

But more than three years later, the drug crisis in Oregon – like many other
places battling the fentanyl crisis – has gotten worse. And that's prompted a
fierce political debate in Oregon about whether Measure 110 has succeeded or
failed.

Sponsor Message




NEWS


IN 2023 FENTANYL OVERDOSES RAVAGED THE U.S. AND FUELED A NEW CULTURE WAR FIGHT

Addressing Measure 110 is one of the priorities for Oregon lawmakers, as they
start their new legislative session this week. Democrats, who control the
legislature and the governor's office, have indicated they're open to
recriminalizing drugs, which could effectively end the most controversial piece
of this legislative experiment.

A citation system many say isn't working

A sidewalk in downtown Portland, Ore., is dotted with tiny scraps of tinfoil,
that police say are used for smoking fentanyl. Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB hide
caption

toggle caption
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB

On a gray November afternoon in downtown Portland, Officer Joey Yoo stood
hunched over a city-issued mountain bike.

The sidewalk was dotted with tiny scraps of tinfoil used for smoking fentanyl.
Down the block, a man officers said was high on meth was raging about his stuff
being stolen.

"Do you have any questions while I'm talking to you about why I'm giving you
this citation?" Yoo asked a young man he stopped for using fentanyl in public.
NPR is not using his name because he was in no condition to give us permission
to do so.

The man was staring down at the ground, not making eye contact with Yoo. The
little he said was hardly audible.

"What brought you out here?" Yoo asked.

"Drugs, I guess," the man replied.

"Do you have any family here?" Yoo asked.

The man didn't appear to respond.

Then, Yoo handed the man several slips of paper. One was a $100 citation.
Another had the phone number to a state-funded hotline. If the man were to call
and get assessed for addiction, the fine and citation would go away.



"You don't have to go into treatment, but they'll give you information about how
to get the treatment," Yoo said. "That's all you have to do."

Court records show the man never made the call.

And that's typical.

So far, police have handed out more than 7,000 citations, but as of December,
only a few hundred people had called the hotline to get assessed for a substance
use disorder. And even fewer accessed treatment through the citation system.

This exchange – a citation for drug use, instead of an arrest – is a direct
result of Measure 110.

Advocates for the measure argued the criminal justice system didn't effectively
treat addiction. They also said it disproportionately harmed people of color.
Before it passed, the state estimated it would reduce racial disparities in
conviction rates.

Back on the street, Officer Yoo said handing out citations doesn't appear to
move people from using drugs on the streets into treatment programs.

"The same people I gave a citation to yesterday, today I see doing the same
thing," Yoo said.

A heated debate in the state capital

Enlarge this image

Portland Police Sgt. Jerry Cioeta checks for a pulse after giving a third round
of opioid reversal medication to a man found unresponsive in downtown Portland,
Ore. The man was revived. Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB hide caption

toggle caption
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB


Portland Police Sgt. Jerry Cioeta checks for a pulse after giving a third round
of opioid reversal medication to a man found unresponsive in downtown Portland,
Ore. The man was revived.

Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB

What's happening here on the streets of Portland has led to a passionate debate
about substance use and drug policy in Oregon.

Opioid overdoses have surged across the state since Measure 110 passed. In 2019,
280 people died from unintentional opiate overdoses in Oregon. In 2022, that was
up to 956 deaths, according to the state health authority – a 241% increase.

A number of researchers have said there isn't evidence that Measure 110 is the
cause.

One study published in September by the Journal of the American Medical
Association Psychiatry, looked at Oregon and Washington, where drug possession
was also decriminalized for several months in 2021. Researchers say they found
no evidence between "legal changes that removed or substantially reduced
criminal penalties for drug possession in Oregon and Washington and fatal drug
overdose rates."



At least one study, however, did find that Measure 110 caused 182 additional
overdose deaths in Oregon in 2021. That study, published in the Journal of
Health Economics, said those additional deaths represented, "a 23% increase over
the number of unintentional drug overdose deaths predicted if Oregon had not
decriminalized drugs."

Brandon del Pozo, an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University who
studies the overdose crisis and substance use, said that study should be taken
with a "grain of salt" because it doesn't control for fentanyl's entry into
Oregon's drug supply.

Enlarge this image

A used Narcan bottle lays on the ground in Portland, Ore. Kristyna
Wentz-Graff/OPB hide caption

toggle caption
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB


A used Narcan bottle lays on the ground in Portland, Ore.

Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB

"In virtually every state, fentanyl is intimately linked to overdose," said del
Pozo, who also spent 23 years as a police officer, in January during a symposium
on Measure 110 in Oregon.

During the past several months in Salem, Oregon's state capital, health experts,
law enforcement, and members of the public have offered deeply divided testimony
to Oregon lawmakers about what should happen to Measure 110. Hundreds of people
submitted testimony, including some who argued that taking away criminal
penalties for drug use hadn't worked. Others said they're concerned about
safety.

"The police occasionally come in and clean up a specific area with their
superficial presence and the drug market moves along to another corner," Lisa
Schroeder, who owns Mother's Bistro & Bar in downtown Portland, testified. "The
quality of life of our citizenry, from the user to the general population, is
suffering."

Cat and Chad Sewell own Sewell Sweets, a bakeshop in Salem. In written
testimony, the Sewell's said they've witnessed drug use leading to conflicts
outside their business.

"The scenes that we see day in and day out leave us frustrated and questioning
just how safe the longevity of our business and livelihood is," they wrote.

Unidentified people with drug paraphernalia in downtown Portland, Ore. Kristyna
Wentz-Graff/OPB hide caption

toggle caption
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB

Addiction doctors and criminal justice experts in Oregon said that a lot
happened between 2020 and now besides Measure 110: not just the fentanyl crisis,
but also the pandemic, which taxed the healthcare system, and a growing crisis
of homelessness.



Dr. Andy Mendenhall is an addiction medicine physician and the CEO of Central
City Concern, a social service organization in Portland that gets a small amount
of money from Measure 110. He testified at one of the hearings in Salem, and in
an interview after, said it's understandable people are frustrated.

"They're reasonably questioning why this is happening – why it's all not fixed,"
he told OPB. "Folks are experiencing their own despair, seeing the suffering of
others... There's a ton of compassion fatigue."

Enlarge this image

During the past several months in Salem, Oregon's state capital, health experts,
law enforcement, and members of the public have offered deeply divided testimony
to Oregon lawmakers about what should happen to Measure 110. Kristyna
Wentz-Graff/OPB hide caption

toggle caption
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB


During the past several months in Salem, Oregon's state capital, health experts,
law enforcement, and members of the public have offered deeply divided testimony
to Oregon lawmakers about what should happen to Measure 110.

Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB

Mendenhall said people are pointing at Measure 110 and saying it's the reason
for Oregon's problems, "when in reality it is our decades-long, underbuilt
system of behavioral health, substance use disorders, shelter and affordable
housing – that are the primary drivers."

Some treatment providers have testified that if lawmakers recriminalize drugs it
will just take Oregon back to a different system that wasn't working.

"Arrest records – it impacts people looking for employment, it impacts their
housing, it perpetuates a cycle of poverty," testified Shannon Jones Isadore,
CEO of the Oregon Change Clinic, a recovery program that specializes in working
with African American and veteran communities in Portland.

"A better solution is to dramatically increase our street services and outreach
where there can be adequate care available for everyone," she said.

Amid the debate about how – or even whether to change the law – there's general
agreement that whatever should happen next to Measure 110, Oregon made a radical
change to its drug laws before the infrastructure was in place to really support
it.

Still, treatment has expanded

Enlarge this image

Recovery Works Northwest counselor Damian Thomas, left, talks with Joe Bazeghi,
director of engagement for the organization, in the Portland, Ore. area.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB hide caption

toggle caption
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB


Recovery Works Northwest counselor Damian Thomas, left, talks with Joe Bazeghi,
director of engagement for the organization, in the Portland, Ore. area.

Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB

There are parts of the law that aren't being debated.

The influx of money towards recovery expanded the state's detox capacity, funded
new staff such as drug and alcohol counselors, and increased culturally specific
treatment programs. Still, a recent study from state health officials found
Oregon was years away from being able to treat everyone who needed it.



Joe Bazeghi helps run Recovery Works Northwest, which opened a new 16-bed detox
facility during the fall of 2023.

"It's Measure 110 funded," Bazeghi said, during a tour in December. "The
purchase, the retrofit, the remodel as well as supplying of this facility was
accomplished with support from Measure 110."

The common area at the detox center at Recovery Works Northwest, in the
Portland, Ore. area. Recovery Works is a medication-assisted treatment program,
focusing on opioid dependency, that opened a new detox facility last fall,
funded by Measure 110. Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB hide caption

toggle caption
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB

The facility opens to a high ceiling with a staircase that goes to a second
floor. There's a dining room, game area and off to one side, a living room for
recovery group meetings.

The detox center is evidence that Measure 110 is working, Bazeghi said.

"Measure 110 is providing treatment resources that otherwise would not exist,"
he said. "It's working as well as could ever possibly be expected of a brand new
system that had to be built."

Most of the people here are really sick, withdrawing from fentanyl.

A woman named Aleah is one of them. NPR is just identifying her by her first
name, because she was still a patient in the detox facility when we spoke with
her.

Enlarge this image

Unable to have visitors, Aleah and her boyfriend press their hands together,
separated by the screen of an open window, as Aleah stays at Recovery Works
Northwest's detox center. Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB hide caption

toggle caption
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB


Unable to have visitors, Aleah and her boyfriend press their hands together,
separated by the screen of an open window, as Aleah stays at Recovery Works
Northwest's detox center.

Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB

"I feel a lot better than I did yesterday," Aleah said.

She'd been at the facility for five days. She said she drove 250 miles from
Eastern Oregon to Recovery Works because it's where she was able to get a bed.
Her boyfriend also wanted her to come here so they could both get sober, she
said. While we were talking, her boyfriend, Trey Rubin, who'd just completed
residential treatment, walked up and stood outside one of the windows.

"I wish I could come out," Aleah said, pressing her hand against the screen of
an open window to meet his hand on the other side.

"At least we can talk through a window," she said. "You look so good."

Rubin recently moved into a sober house in Portland.

"I want to be successful and do things in my life and that's definitely the
first step," Rubin said. "You can't really do anything if you're not clean, you
know."



He said he's thinking about what he may do now that he's not using drugs.

"I love dirt bikes and writing," he said. "I don't know exactly what I want to
do yet. But maybe want to go to school to be an X-ray technician or something
like that."

Oregon has faced some criticism for how slow the expansion of treatment programs
such as the one that helped Aleah and Rubin has been. But if anything, state
lawmakers say they want to invest more in recovery programs, even if they're
considering other changes.

Oregon's 2024 legislative session got underway this week, where lawmakers are
expected to debate Measure 110's future.

A man who was just revived from a near-fatal overdose climbs into the back of an
ambulance. Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB hide caption

toggle caption
Kristyna Wentz-Graff/OPB

By early March, lawmakers could decide exactly what that future will be. Oregon
Senate Majority Leader Kate Lieber – who co-chaired the legislature's addiction
committee – told Oregon Public Broadcasting that she's not advocating for
Measure 110 to be repealed. But she and other top lawmakers have said they
support recriminalizing drug possession so long as there are ways for the
criminal justice system to direct people into the treatment programs Measure 110
has helped to expand.

"We knew that we didn't want to go backwards on what was happening with regard
to the war on drugs, we can't go back to that – but people are dying of
overdoses on the street," Lieber said.

"The state of the drug crisis in Oregon is unacceptable."

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 * opioid crisis

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