Oregon’s drug decriminalization aimed to make cops a gateway to rehab, not jail. State leaders failed to make it work.
Oregon’s political leaders themselves played central roles in failing to deliver on the potential for law enforcement to connect people with lifesaving services under the new measure, documents and interviews with a wide array of people involved in the system indicate.
The Legislature, the court system and the bureaucracy under two governors ignored or rejected proposed solutions as seemingly straightforward as designing a specialized ticket to highlight treatment information. They declined to fund a proposed $50,000 online course that would have instructed cops how to better use the new law. They took no action on recommendations to get police, whose leaders campaigned against the ballot measure, talking with treatment providers after decriminalization passed. Leaders involved in the process pointed to the rapid timeline for implementing the measure amid the pandemic, among other developments, as a factor hindering what they could accomplish. Both a leading critic of Measure 110 and its most prominent supporter agree that leadership failures took away any chance for Oregon to truly test the measure’s potential. Oregon’s Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, which trains law enforcement, confirmed in February that it has offered police no instruction on how Measure 110 works other than to update information for new recruits on when drug possession is a violation, misdemeanor or felony. The Oregon Health Authority, the agency that voters required to “administer and provide all necessary support to ensure the implementation of” Measure 110, developed no programs to inform police of the expanded services available to people they ticketed.
Original Article (Pro Publica):
Oregon’s drug decriminalization aimed to make cops a gateway to rehab, not jail. State leaders failed to make it work.
Artwork Fair Use: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives
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