A4 BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 2022
BAKER CITY
Opinion
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Baker City, Oregon
EDITORIAL
State failing
on drug
treatment
initiative
S
ome Oregonians who voted for
Measure 110 in November 2020,
which made possession of small
amounts of heroin, cocaine, meth and
other drugs the equivalent of a traffi c
ticket, might be having buyer’s remorse.
At least among voters who were
persuaded by the measure’s promise to
bolster the state’s drug treatment system.
(Although the measure passed state-
wide with 58.5% of voters in favor, it
fared comparatively poorly in Baker
County, where 62.4% of voters were
opposed.)
Th e glaring problem might seem coun-
terintuitive — the state government can’t
seem to fi gure out how to spend money.
Measure 110 diverted hundreds of
millions of dollars in taxes from the
state’s legal marijuana industry to drug
treatment.
Yet a year and a half aft er voters ap-
proved the measure, the state has about
$265 million for treatment eff orts that
hasn’t been disbursed, according to a
recent story by Th e Associated Press. Th e
Oregon Health Authority has given out
just $40 million to treatment providers.
According to the AP’s reporting, state
offi cials underestimated the interest that
treatment centers would have in the
money. As a result, many applications
for the money are pending, according to
testimony before the state House Inter-
im Committee on Behavioral Health on
June 2.
“So clearly, if we were to do it over
again, I would have asked for many more
staff much quicker in the process,” said
Steve Allen, the state’s behavioral health
director. “We were just under-resourced
to be able to support this eff ort, and un-
derestimated the work that was involved
in supporting something that looked like
this and partly we didn’t fully understand
it until we were in the middle of it.”
It’s mystifying that state health offi cials
would underestimate the demand for
drug treatment in an era when overdose
deaths are increasing.
Some of the explanations that state of-
fi cials off ered for botching the rollout of
this part of the voter-approved measure
are hardly compelling.
Ian Green, an audits manager for the
state, said the ballot measure didn’t speci-
fy the roles of the Oregon Health Author-
ity and the Measure 110 Oversight and
Accountability Council.
Th at lack of clarity, Green said,
“contributed to delays, confusions and
strained relations.”
Th is ought not be complicated.
Th e state shouldn’t need to create a
new entity — the Oversight and Ac-
countability Council — to decide wheth-
er an applicant is capable of helping
people overcome drug addictions.
Ultimately, “strained relations” be-
tween groups that themselves depend
on public dollars is a pathetic excuse for
the failure to make timely use of tens of
millions of dollars that could literally
save lives.
Th e state has a demonstrated need for
boosting its drug treatment options.
And thanks the Measure 110, it has the
money to do so.
State offi cials shouldn’t need a guide-
book to fi gure out what to do now.
— Jayson Jacoby,
Baker City Herald editor
OTHER VIEWS
Gun violence is a crisis we can solve
Editorial from the Dallas Morning News:
s the murdered children of Uvalde are
laid to rest, our nation needs to muster
the courage and political will to treat
rising gun violence and mass shootings as an
acute public health crisis.
When auto accidents claimed a large num-
ber of lives, government and industry dollars
funded research to make cars safer, leading
to seat belts, airbags and other now standard
safety features. Public health studies that
linked smoking to cancer, lung disease and
other health risks changed smoking habits.
Subsequent legal action held tobacco compa-
nies responsible for having hidden the health
risks associated with their products.
The Second Amendment protects gun
ownership in America. The U.S. Supreme
Court upheld the individual right to own
guns in the Heller decision. In that same rul-
ing, Justice Antonin Scalia also noted that
“like most rights, the right secured by the
Second Amendment is not unlimited” and
that “the right was not a right to keep and
A
carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner
whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”
Federal dollars are slowly returning to
gun violence research after more than two
decades on the sidelines due to fears that
scientific study would lead to gun con-
trol. But gun violence research is funded at
about $63 per life lost, making it the sec-
ond-most-neglected major cause of death,
according to a 2017 estimate in the Jour-
nal of the American Medical Association.
While mass shootings at schools rightly
spotlight the need for school security, more
young people have died from gun violence
of all kinds than car crashes, which are sec-
ond, and drug overdoses, which are third.
But as a nation, we need to know more
about gun violence. A research letter in
the New England Journal of Medicine
concluded that firearm-related deaths in-
creased 13% between 2019 and 2020, with
the biggest jump — a stunning 30% — oc-
curring among those under 19 years of age.
And of the 45,222 deaths from gun vio-
lence in 2020, roughly 10% were children
and teenagers.
But here’s the shocker. Roughly 65% of gun
deaths among adults were suicides and 30%
were homicides. However, among teens and
younger Americans, those percentages are
roughly flipped, the statistics show.
The nation needs to increase mental health
investments and pass sensible gun safety reg-
ulations at the federal and state levels. Public
support exists for background checks, age
limits on weapons purchases, red flag laws
and mandatory training for firearm owners.
Most of all, the nation has to break the cycle
of violence, and a more rigorous examination
of gun deaths and injuries as a public health
crisis will allow researchers to better deter-
mine how to prevent such deaths.
Families and communities wracked by gun
violence are forever broken, and the rest of us
share their grief and fear that a gunman could
mete out carnage on our families and friends.
As a society, we must not allow this carnage
to persist.
YOUR VIEWS
Contrary to letter, God is mentioned in a proposal for ambulance service. Doesn’t
it seem foolhardy to give up half your fire-
the U.S. Constitution
fighting personnel, who double as EMTs,
without trying to find a solution? Giving
up without even trying is not in any defi-
nition of leadership! If City and County
have to raise taxes, then do it. The police
department is not a money maker either. Is
Cannon going to suggest getting rid of it?
Figure out the proportion cost between city
and county area service and calculate the
numbers. The right heads working together
should be able to do the math. The County
Commission is doing what it has to do. City
Union chief should lead negotations Council needs to proceed with what they
should do. Hand the ball off to Casey John-
on ambulance service
son and let him run with it. At least with
For someone who is as staunchly anti-union that approach there is hope the issue can be
as I, it pains me to say this but firefighter’s
resolved.
union leader Casey Johnson seems to have the
Jim Carnahan
best understanding of the fire department and
Baker County
ambulance issues and should be given a lead
position in negotiating with the County Com- Vietnam veteran’s perspective on
mission. The City Council should authorize
school shootings
his negotiating position immediately, before
it is too late. As part of the two-thirds of the
Back in 1967 I was a 19-year-old Marine
county currently served by the city ambu-
rifleman in Vietnam. I saw a few gunfights
lance service, I can’t take my case directly
and some other things. I guess in the mod-
to the City Council but ambulance service
ern USA lexicon it was mass shootings or
is vitally important to all of us affected. Is
active shooters. I never knew for sure in
it too much to ask the Council to do the
some situations if I killed anybody. Fog of
right thing?
war and all that stuff.
For starters, city manager Jon Cannon
I think maybe what was and is more
should be spanked for his simplistic atti-
confusing is the fog of coming home. I got
tude of avoiding service, and associated
knocked out with an explosion and was
cost, by simply suggesting it’s not the City’s eventually sent to Oak Knoll Naval hospital
concern. A juvenile attitude of “I don’t
for discharge. I had to wait on paperwork,
want to and you can’t make me!” is not ap- so I ended up having to deliver mail be-
propriate for what should be adult discus- tween the wards. There were three ampu-
sion. A more mature approach would have tee wards with a lot of different situations,
been to identify the cost/funding problem, some with multiple limb loss. On the week-
discuss it first with the Council, then go
ends I could get a pass from the hospital to
to the Commission and start working on
go into San Francisco.
a solution instead of just giving up as his
August 1967, the Summer of Love in San
first option.
Francisco, Haight and Ashbury, hippies,
Then, based on the last City Council re- drugs. If you’re going to San Francisco be
port, the Council is following his lack of
sure to wear a flower in your hair. Defi-
leadership by also giving up before they
nitely a different kind of America than was
even start in voting to forego submittal of
back at the hospital.
Mike Meyer stated in the Tuesday May 31
edition of the Baker City Herald that “There
is no mention of God in our Constitution.
...” Actually Article VII, second paragraph of
the Constitution mentions God. Also, inci-
dentally, God is mentioned four times in the
Declaration of Independence. And it is for a
very good reason.
Neal Jacobson
Baker City
I think the recent school shootings show
that the different Americas that was then is
now. It seems that the flower children’s chil-
dren get quite emotional when school kids
are slaughtered and can’t really offer any solu-
tions other than trying to disarm those who
did the fighting in our wars. Ban this, ban
that, no guns here and all that. What the real
tragedy is the most towns and cities where
these terrible things happen have many vet-
erans who are fathers, grandfathers, uncles
and aunts, some who have had combat expe-
rience, been there done that and could stop
all the school shootings but it seems that the
vocal, never-been-shot-at violence virgins,
end up in charge of security. Why in God’s
name are those with bronze stars, silver stars,
purple hearts, combat action ribbons, combat
infantry badges, passed over in favor of those
who would put teddy bears and balloons on
makeshift memorials where a dozen or more
died when a vet donating his time could have
made sure only one grave needed to be dug.
That of the would-be shooter.
Ah, I guess the fog of the political war will
be around for quite a while. Fifty-some years
ago draft dodgers like Bill Clinton and Joe
Biden didn’t like gun violence and found a
way to get a deferment and advance their po-
litical careers. It goes on. As a mental exercise
try to imagine Chuck Schumer, Beto O’Ro-
urke, Elon Musk, Whoopee Goldberg, Don
Lemon, AOC, my Oregon Senators Wyden
and Merkley, and the Oregon congressional
house. Imagine an endless list of politicians,
celebrities, sports stars and professional BS’ers
on cable news and talk radio actually stand-
ing up and facing violence. No way, they hire
men with guns to protect them.
A lot more than 20 young people were lost
at the Texas school shooting. Battle lines have
been drawn. The Second Amendment is un-
der attack. It is designed to be a barrier to tyr-
anny. Sending men with guns to disarm men
with guns who believe that won’t end well.
In the meantime let’s make the schools a
hard target. Defend them.
Steve Culley
La Grande
CONTACT YOUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS
President Joe Biden: The White House, 1600
Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500; 202-456-
1111; to send comments, go to www.whitehouse.gov.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley: D.C. office: 313 Hart Senate
Office Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-
224-3753; fax 202-228-3997. Portland office: One World
Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon St. Suite 1250, Portland,
OR 97204; 503-326-3386; fax 503-326-2900. Baker City
office, 1705 Main St., Suite 504, 541-278-1129; merkley.
senate.gov.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden: D.C. office: 221 Dirksen Senate
Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-5244;
fax 202-228-2717. La Grande office: 105 Fir St., No. 210,
La Grande, OR 97850; 541-962-7691; fax, 541-963-0885;
wyden.senate.gov.
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (2nd District): D.C. office: 1239
Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515,
202-225-6730; fax 202-225-5774. Medford office: 14 N.
Central Avenue Suite 112, Medford, OR 97850; Phone:
541-776-4646; fax: 541-779-0204; Ontario office: 2430 S.W.
Fourth Ave., No. 2, Ontario, OR 97914; Phone: 541-709-
2040. bentz.house.gov.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown: 254 State Capitol, Salem, OR
97310; 503-378-3111; www.governor.oregon.gov.
Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read: oregon.treasurer@
ost.state.or.us; 350 Winter St. NE, Suite 100, Salem OR
97301-3896; 503-378-4000.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum: Justice
Building, Salem, OR 97301-4096; 503-378-4400.
Oregon Legislature: Legislative documents and
information are available online at www.leg.state.or.us.
State Sen. Lynn Findley (R-Ontario): Salem office: 900
Court St. N.E., S-403, Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1730.
Email: Sen.LynnFindley@oregonlegislature.gov
State Rep. Mark Owens (R-Crane): Salem office: 900
Court St. N.E., H-475, Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1460.
Email: Rep.MarkOwens@oregonlegislature.gov
Baker City Hall: 1655 First Street, P.O. Box 650, Baker City,
OR 97814; 541-523-6541; fax 541-524-2049. City Council
meets the second and fourth Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Council
Chambers. Councilors Jason Spriet, Kerry McQuisten,
Shane Alderson, Joanna Dixon, Kenyon Damschen, Johnny
Waggoner Sr. and Dean Guyer.