Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 2018)
Street Roots • Feb. 9-15, 2018 News COMMISSION, from page 4 even-numbered year. Brent Canode, a voting member of Oregon’s Drug and Alcohol Policy Commission, is also the steering committee chair at Oregon Recovers. He said that without having a set deadline for turning in a plan, “there is nothing driving the commission forward.” Canode, along with former City Club of Portland director Mike Marshall, co-founded Oregon Recovers. Both men are in long-term recovery and hope to mobilize the thousands of other Oregonians who are in recovery into a constituency united on improving Oregon’s alcohol and drug programs. Addiction cost Oregonians $5.9 billion in 2006, the most recent year costs associated with addiction were estimated. This number includes costs from lost wages and health care to corrections and social welfare expenditures. Proponents of the bill argue that these costs dwarf the $1.8 billion budget gap that lawmakers have been struggling to fill. At its Jan. 25 meeting on the seventh floor of the Lincoln Building in downtown Portland, the Drug and Alcohol Policy Commission discussed how it should start the process of working on its mandated plan for improving substance abuse services by reviewing the now 10-year-old report from its predecessor. On Feb. 7, House Bill 4137 had its first public hearing before the House Committee on Health Care. A mother named Alison Mann, who testified in support of the bill, told legislators that when she tried to find a program in Oregon that would help her son overcome his addiction, “that’s when my nightmare became even worse.” She told legislators that while she got plenty of hugs and sympathy during her search, she discovered Oregon has very few viable treatment options for REA! Page 7 WOLFSON, from page 5 ME The first Native American to represent Portland in the state Legislature, Tawna Sanchez brings an eye on affordable housing, the Superfund clean-up and our problematic foster care system. Read Street Roots' 2016 interview with Sanchez at news.streetroots. (rg/Sanchez ' adolescents. She said she ultimately liquidated all her assets, including her home, and used the money to send her son to a drug treatment program out of state, first in Georgia and then Arizona. Dr. Brad Anderson, chief of addiction medicine for Kaiser Permanente, also testified in support of the bill. He said he’s seeking immediate appointment to the Oregon Alcohol and Drug Policy Commission so he can work on the issue himself. He said Oregon needs to reduce barriers to treatments that work, such as medication assisted treatment, and establish a system that recognizes addiction as a chronic disease and provides an adequately funded continuum of care. “Oregon lives depend on this,” said Anderson, “especially young Oregon lives.” Sanchez told legislators that after nearly 10 years with no plan or report of any kind to show for it, she just wants to “put a date on it” and “make it happen.” She said she would like to see the commission come up with a preliminary report or strategic plan by this September, with the publication of a more complete and comprehensive statewide plan by Sept. 15 of 2019. emily@streetroots. org; Twitter @greenwrites baseball being considered America’s pastime, what are your thoughts on protest movements happening in American sports today? C. W.: I like it. I like freedom of expression. We weren’t free from this back in the 1960s. Curt Flood of the St. Louis Cardinals decided he wasn’t going to be the property of a baseball team. He was the one who spurred the movement of free agency. Now, he didn’t do his protest on the field, but he refused to trade. What Curt Flood was saying was that they weren’t property of anyone; we may be employees, but we have our rights of free expression. I believe players have rights to free expression, and I support it. The truth is that if Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players, black and white, had not taken a knee, I don’t think we’d have as widespread of an understanding or people knowing that malfeasance by the police. Treating African-Americans different than white people wouldn’t be as much on the radar. You can complain all you want, but the point is that they have said they aren’t disrespecting the flag or the anthem; they’re respectfully kneeling to make a point, and I’m glad that the NFL has embraced the players doing it. I think it’s the right move. D. P.: You grew up with a Republican mother, and you’re a Democrat. What was the pressure like when you decided to make your own decision to become a Democrat? C.W.: Well, by the time Bill Clinton was in office, my father and all three of my WHERE TO BUY IT: Wolfson’s memoir is available at Annie Bloom’s Books (7834 SW Capitol Highway, Portland) and Broadway Books (1714 NE Broadway St., Portland). “You can go to any bookstore, and they can order it,” Woltson says. It’s also available on Amazon. sisters had become Democrats. My mother stayed a Republican until the day she died, but I had a lot of support along the way. My dad was once a Republican, but he was more moderate and my mother was more conservative. The main point, though, was that in 1964, we were a very political family, and politics was all around me. I love politics and history to this day, and I credit my parents for that. Even though they were Republicans, they had me interested in politics, which was a great thing. Voices of the Homeless A 3017-18 Civic Education Program of the League of Women Voters of Portland Be Informed, Free anti Ope« to the Public Tuesday, February 13, 20IS, 7-9 pm Multnomah County Beard M 501 SB Hawthorne Blvd. Speakers: People representing Transition Projects and the Pillage Coalition and who have hands-on experience dealing with the problems o f being unhoused Website: jwvgdx,otg; and YouTube «¿broadcast Contact: cIvtcedOwvndKora for more infomiation SISTERS OFTHE ROAD XX X A Loving way to respond to panhandling! Meal Coupons can be used at Sisters of the Road for a healthy meal and a drink. Give someone a meal, start a conversation, and maybe make a new friend. www.sistersoftheroad.org 133 NW Sixth Avenue, PDX 97209 info@sistersoftheroad.org (503} 222-5694 OF PORTLAND J MEAL COUPONS $2.00 / EACH
