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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, ApRIl 14, 2022
Mixed results for state’s drug decriminalization
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated press
SALEM — Oregon voters approved a bal-
lot measure in 2020 to decriminalize hard
drugs after being told it was a way to establish
and fund addiction recovery centers that would
offer people aid instead of incarceration.
Yet in the first year after the new approach
took effect in February 2021, only 1% of peo-
ple who received citations for possessing con-
trolled substances asked for help via a new
hotline.
With Oregon being the first state in Amer-
ica to decriminalize possession of person-
al-use amounts of heroin, methamphetamine,
LSD, oxycodone and other drugs, its program
is being watched as a potential model for other
states.
Some are questioning whether the approach
is proving too lenient, but others say the new
system has already had a positive impact by
redirecting millions of dollars into facilities to
help those with drug dependency issues. The
funds come from taxes generated by Oregon’s
legal marijuana industry and savings from
reductions in arrests, jail time and probation
supervision.
Under Measure 110, possession of con-
trolled substances is now a newly created Class
E “violation,” instead of a felony or misde-
meanor. It carries a maximum $100 fine, which
can be waived if the person calls a hotline for a
health assessment. The call can lead to addic-
tion counseling and other services.
But out of roughly 2,000 citations issued by
police in the year after decriminalization took
effect, only 92 of the people who received
them called the hotline by mid-February. And
only 19 requested resources for services, said
William Nunemann of Lines for Life, which
runs the hotline.
Almost half of those who got citations
failed to show up in court.
State health officials have reported 473
unintentional opioid overdose deaths from
January to August 2021, the most recent month
for which statistics are available, with the vast
majority of those occurring after decriminal-
ization took effect. That narrowly surpasses
the total for all of 2020, and is nearly 200
deaths more than the state saw in all of 2019.
The state reports that opioid overdose visits to
emergency rooms and urgent care centers have
also been on the rise.
The Oregon Health Authority cites as pos-
sible reasons the greater presence of fentanyl,
which has increased overdose deaths across
the country, as well as a downturn in reporting
during the pandemic in 2020.
State Sen. Floyd Prozanski, chair of the
Oregon Senate’s Judiciary and Ballot Mea-
sure 110 Implementation Committee, said he’s
surprised more of those ticketed weren’t tak-
Andrew Selsky/AP Photo
Vanessa Caudel, a nurse, sits at her work station in the Great Circle treatment center where she
provides doses of methadone in Salem.
ing advantage of the recovery options. Still,
he believes it’s too early to judge how the new
approach is going.
“It’s a different model, at least for the U.S.,”
Prozanski said, adding he’d want to wait at
least another half-year before considering
whether steps should be introduced to compel
people to seek treatment.
Decriminalization advocates argued put-
ting drug users in jail and giving them criminal
records, which harms job and housing pros-
pects, was not working.
“Punishing people and these punitive
actions, all it does is saddle them with barriers
and more stigma and more shame,” said Tera
Hurst, executive director of Oregon Health
Justice Recovery Alliance, which represents
more than 75 community-based organizations
and is focused on implementing Measure 110.
The Drug Policy Alliance spearheaded
Oregon’s ballot measure. With no U.S. states
to serve as examples, the New York-based
group, which calls itself the leading organiza-
tion in the U.S. promoting alternatives to the
war on drugs, studied Portugal, which decrim-
inalized drug possession in 2000.
Portugal’s approach is more vigorous than
Oregon’s in getting people to treatment.
There, “dissuasion commissions” pressure
anyone caught using drugs — even marijuana
— to seek treatment. Those pressure points
include fines, prohibiting drug users from vis-
iting certain venues or from traveling abroad,
seizure of personal property, community work
and having to periodically report to health ser-
vices or other places.
Drug Policy Alliance intentionally sought
an approach that did not compel people to seek
treatment, said spokesperson Matt Sutton.
“We have seen that when people voluntarily
access services when they are ready, they have
much more successful outcomes,” Sutton said.
Some 16,000 people accessed services
through the ballot measure’s “Access to Care”
grants in the first year of decriminalization,
according to the Oregon Health Authority.
Most — 60% — accessed “harm reduc-
tion services,” like syringe exchanges and
overdose medications, the health authority
said. Another 15% were assisted with housing
needs and 12% obtained peer support. Only
0.85% entered treatment.
Critics say that’s simply not enough.
“The Oregon ballot initiative was presented
to the public as pro-treatment but it has been
a complete failure in that regard,” said Keith
Humphreys, an addiction researcher and pro-
fessor of psychiatry at Stanford University
and former senior adviser in the White House
Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Brian Pacheco of the Drug Policy Alliance,
though, said people with drug problems need
a range of options, including harm reduction
services, housing assistance, peer support and,
for those who can’t get insurance or Medicaid,
access to treatment centers.
“Measure 110 funding has strengthened
organizations in myriad ways, including get-
ting mobile vehicles to provide services in
communities, helped programs keep their
doors open, and aided other organizations
to purchase and distribute naloxone (which
reverses opioid overdose),” Pacheco said in an
email.
The $31 million in grants distributed so far
paid for thousands of doses of naloxone, thou-
sands of syringe exchanges, recovery housing,
vehicles and the hiring of dozens of staffers
for care centers, including recovery mentors,
according to the health authority.
An example of where some of the money
is going is Great Circle, a nonresidential treat-
ment center in Salem owned by the Confed-
erated Tribes of Grand Ronde, which was
awarded a $590,055 grant.
On a recent day, two Salem police officers
checked on a homeless woman who had been
assaulted days earlier. Still bearing a black
eye, she confided she had a drug problem and
needed help. Police Lt. Treven Upkes called
Great Circle to see if they could help. Bring
her right over, he was told.
“Just the fact that they had an open door
for us at the moment that someone was say-
ing they were ready for help, that’s such an
incredible step for us,” Upkes said. “That’s the
kind of thing that we would hope comes out of
Measure 110.”
If the response had been to schedule an
appointment two weeks down the road, Upkes
noted he might have been unable to reconnect
with the woman.
At Great Circle, a staff doctor and nurses
check a person’s vital signs and do a urinalysis
with an in-house lab. A nurse dispenses doses
of methadone, which can relieve terrible “dope
sick” symptoms a person in opioid withdrawal
experiences.
Peer specialists like Nick Mull describe
their own life experiences to those with sub-
stance abuse disorders, and inspire them.
Mull’s parents were addicts and he fell into
drug use himself at a young age.
“About six years ago, I got in some trouble
and ... I started to want to change my life,” said
Mull, wearing a black hoodie and jeans. “So
I just started doing treatment, more treatment
and more treatment. I learned a lot.”
Jennifer Worth, Great Circle’s operations
director, said Mull plays an important role.
“What Nick brings to the work is a sense of
hope,” Worth said. “And the patients who are
struggling with where he was can see that hope
is possible.”
But with so few people seeking help after
receiving citations, the Legislature might need
to consider requiring they do more than call a
hotline or pay a small fine, Prozanski said.
Humphreys believes people should be pres-
sured to seek treatment if they’re committing
crimes like shoplifting and burglary, but not if
they’re simply using drugs.
“It’s about the threats to public safety that
some people pose because of their problem-
atic drug use,” Humphreys said. “And in those
cases, pressuring people to seek treatment is
absolutely legitimate.”
Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan’s
office will be auditing Oregon’s program.
Fagan said she has a personal interest: Her
own mother had a lifelong battle with addic-
tion and homelessness.
Associated press writer Barry Hatton in
portugal contributed to this report.