Hard drugs are once again illegal in Oregon, as a new law ends a failed experiment in decriminalization. On Sept 1, the bipartisan House Bill 4002 reintroduced penalties for drug possession.
“This ends the legalization of hard drugs which had prevented law enforcement from intervening, even when they were being consumed quite blatantly in public places,” Rep. Kevin Mannix, a Republican cosponsor of the bill, wrote in a Sept. 2 statement.
The bill also toughened penalties for drug traffickers to prevent them from profiting from addiction, he said.
Overdoses Soar
The law reversed Ballot Measure 110, the Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act, which voters narrowly approved in 2020 and was intended to address the state’s drug addiction problem.
That measure decriminalized user possession of hard drugs—including fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin—making it a noncriminal violation on par with a traffic ticket. It offered users treatment options funded by directing hundreds of millions of dollars from the state’s cannabis tax revenue toward addiction services. […]
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