Oregon Becomes First State to Decriminalize Possession of All Drugs
It's a move that places treatment for addiction over carceral punishment
Somewhat lost in the tornadic chaos of the 2020 election was the news that Oregon’s IP 44 entitled the Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act, passed. The initiative, the first of its kind in the United States, decriminalizes the possession of all drugs and replaces it with a $100 non-criminal citation which can be waived if the person agrees to attend a health assessment at an addiction recovery center. These addiction recovery centers, which will be open 24/7, will be funded by the $100 million+ in tax revenue brought in from marijuana in the state.
The campaign for IP44 began in March and quickly hit the signature threshold it needed to be put on the ballot. Kassandra Frederique, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which supported the initiative, called the passage, “arguably the biggest blow to the war on drugs to date.”
She’s right.
While the legalization of marijuana played a role in pushing us away from the draconian, punitive, carceral approach, a broad measure like this is far more significant in its scope. It’s a truly bold piece of legislation that operates on a model defined by empathy and treatment rather than punishment. Here’s an excerpt from the measure, but I would suggest you read the whole thing.
Whereas, Oregon needs to shift its focus to addressing drugs through a humane, cost-effective, health approach. People suffering from addiction are more effectively treated with health care services than with criminal punishments. A health care approach includes a health assessment to figure out the needs of people who are suffering from addiction, and it includes connecting them to the services they need.
Whereas, Oregon still treats addiction as a criminal problem. Law enforcement should spend more time on community safety, but Oregon law enforcement officers in 2017 arrested more than 8,000 people in cases where simple drug possession was the most serious offense. In many instances, the same people were arrested for drug possession, again and again, because they are unable to get treatment.
Whereas, punishing people who are suffering from addiction ruins lives. Criminalizing drugs saddles people with criminal records. Those records prevent them from getting housing, going to school, getting loans, getting professional licenses, getting jobs and keeping jobs. Criminalizing drugs disproportionately harms poor people and people of color. '
Many areas of the country have been slowly shifting away—through the decriminalization or legalization of marijuana, and the defelonization of other illicit substances—from treating drug addiction as a moral failure for which one should be locked away. But a measure like this pushes that trend into overdrive. And that is precisely what we need given that the opioid epidemic is alive and well with overdose deaths rising during the Covid-19 pandemic. This is not the time for slow-rolling pragmatism, it is the time for urgency.
The initiative is primed to expand treatment dramatically in a state that desperately needs it. Oregon ranks near the bottom for access to treatment. If the initiative is successful, it could serve as a model for the rest of the country: legalize and tax marijuana, use that revenue to open addiction treatment centers, and decriminalize the possession of all illicit drugs.
This is the approach we need.
Addiction is a disease. Locking people away for a disease is archaic, heartless, and entirely ineffective. Let’s hope other states follow Oregon’s lead.
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