SALEM, Oregon. – The Oregon police can no longer arrest someone for possession of small amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other drugs as an electoral measure that decriminalized them took effect on Monday.
Instead, those found to be in possession of drugs would face a $ 100 fine or a health assessment that could lead to addiction counseling. Proponents of the electoral measure, which Oregon voters approved by a wide margin in November, hailed it as a revolutionary measure for the United States.
“Today, the first domino of our cruel and inhuman war on drugs has fallen, triggering what we hope will be a cascade of other efforts focusing on health instead of criminalization,” said Kassandra Frederique, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, who led the electoral initiative.
Supporters of Measure 110 said that treatment must be the priority and that criminalizing drug possession was not working. In addition to facing the prospect of being arrested, having a criminal record makes it difficult to search for housing and jobs and can harass a person for life.
Two dozen district prosecutors opposed the measure, saying it was unwise and would lead to an increase in the acceptance of dangerous drugs.
Rather than being arrested, those found by the police with quantities of drugs for personal use would face a civil summons, “like a traffic ticket,” and not a criminal summons, said Matt Sutton, a spokesman for the Drug Policy Alliance.
Under the new system, addiction recovery centers will be tasked with “screening the acute needs of people who use drugs and assessing and meeting all ongoing needs for intensive case management and linking to care and services”.
The addiction recovery centers will be funded by millions of dollars of tax revenue from Oregon’s legalized marijuana industry. This diverts some resources from other programs and entities that already receive them, such as schools.
The electoral measure limited the revenue from the marijuana tax that schools; alcoholism and mental health drug services; the state police; and cities and counties receive $ 45 million annually, with the remainder going to a “Drug Recovery and Treatment Services Fund”.
The fund will be flooded with cash if the marijuana sales trend continues as expected.
In fiscal year 2020, marijuana tax revenues peaked at $ 133 million, a 30% increase over the previous year and a 545% increase over 2016, when marijuana taxes started to be charged from legally registered recreational marijuana companies across the state.
The other recipients of the marijuana tax receipts are now saying that once the assessment and related treatment options are set up, the distribution of those receipts will merit further analysis. An important legislator agrees.
“In the future, as Oregon’s treatment programs reach full funding, the state must assess which other services would benefit from our continually increasing tax revenues on marijuana,” said Oregon Education Association President John Larson, by email.
Larson said that a “balanced budget approach” will support communities and students. The OAS union represents about 44,000 educators.
State Senator Floyd Prozanski, chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and Implementation of Voting 110, said he expects Oregon’s cannabis tax revenues to increase exponentially if recreational marijuana in the United States is legalized. He expects that to happen in four years.
That would make the Drug Recovery and Treatment Services Fund “supersaturated with prescription,” as out-of-state consumers legally buy potent marijuana from Oregon, Prozanski said in a telephone interview.
“It would be foolish for us as a legislature to think that voters would like us to apply hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of millions of dollars to a program that would, at that point, I think, have a gold standard” in addiction recovery services, he said. the democrat.
But Sutton noted that, in addition to traditional treatment services, the fund would also be spent on housing and job assistance to provide long-term stability for people struggling with addiction.
“I can’t imagine a situation where this fund would become oversaturated anytime soon,” said Sutton.
Oregon is a pioneer in liberalizing drug laws. It was the first state, in 1973, to decriminalize marijuana possession. In 2014, voters in Oregon passed an electoral measure legalizing recreational marijuana use. But Sutton said there are no plans to pursue legalization and a regulated market for hard drugs in Oregon.
Dependency recovery centers must be available by October 1. A center must be established within each service area of the existing coordinated assistance organization.
After decriminalization, about 3,700 fewer Oregon residents per year will be convicted of a crime or misdemeanor for possession of controlled substances, according to estimates by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission. The move is also likely to lead to significant reductions in racial and ethnic disparities in convictions and arrests, the state commission said.
Drugs specified by the measure include LSD, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, methadone, oxycodone and MDMA – commonly known as ecstasy.
Although this approach is new in the United States, several countries, including Portugal, the Netherlands and Switzerland, have already decriminalized possession of small quantities of heavy drugs, according to the United Nations.
The decriminalization of Portugal in 2000 did not increase drug use. Drug deaths fell while the number of people treated for drug addiction in the country increased by 20% from 2001 to 2008 and then stabilized, Portuguese officials said.