Democratic lawmakers in Oregon on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping new bill that would undo a key part of the state’s first-in-the-nation drug decriminalization law, a recognition that public opinion has soured on the measure amid rampant public drug use during the fentanyl crisis.

The bill would recriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs as a low-level misdemeanor, enabling police to confiscate them and crack down on their use on sidewalks and in parks, its authors said. It also aims to make it easier to prosecute dealers, to access addiction treatment medication, and to obtain and keep housing without facing discrimination for using that medication.

    • @[email protected]
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      101 year ago

      The proponents live in a fantasy world where everybody wants to get clean.

      Absolutely false. I live in a fantasy world where my leaders are required to watch Demolition Man on repeat until they understand that people have the inalienable right to choose to make themselves miserable. That’s why we also allow casinos.

    • Flying Squid
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      221 year ago

      How do you get clean in a for-profit healthcare system when you’re a poor junkie?

        • @[email protected]
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          1 year ago

          Yeah that’s the problem. They’re sitting on that money instead of distributing it like they were supposed to meaning people aren’t getting treatment. This new bill is just more of the same and allows them to continue sitting on that money while pretending like they’re doing something about the issue.

          Doing drugs in public was not decriminalized but police aren’t doing their job so that they can make the problem worse and get what they want.

            • @[email protected]
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              21 year ago

              Decriminalization of personal-use amounts of drugs, approved by voters in 2020 under Ballot Measure 110, was supposed to channel hundreds of millions of dollars of marijuana tax revenues into drug treatment and harm reduction programs. But that hasn’t yet translated into an improved care network for a state with the second-highest rate of substance use disorder in the nation and ranked 50th for access to treatment.

              “When Oregonians passed Measure 110, we expected that our loved ones battling addiction would have access to treatment and a chance for a better life,” Fagan told reporters in a Zoom press conference. “We expected there will be fewer of our neighbors struggling on the streets.”

              Instead, the funding has been slow getting out of the gate and instances of drug abuse and overdose deaths have increased.

              What point is there in calling a hotline that’ll tell you there’s no treatment options available? This shit is straight out of the Republican playbook, starve services to make them ineffectual, and then point to that ineffectiveness as a reason to change laws to what they want. The only difference here is that it’s Democratic legislators doing it. It’s just scumbags all the way down regardless of the party they represent.

    • snooggums
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      91 year ago

      Possession of under a gram of heroin, for example, is only subject to a ticket and a maximum fine of $100.

      Fines like this are just taxes for the poor.

      • TimmyDeanSausage
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        41 year ago

        I’m poor and I’m an (ex)addict. If a fine like that came with penalties, I wouldn’t do drugs in public… Because I wouldn’t want to pay the fine. Poor people aren’t stupid and most of us aren’t in the habit of throwing away money…

        • snooggums
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          21 year ago

          A penalty that has a significant impact on the poor while being the cost of having fun for the rich is just saying the behavior is only acceptable if you can afford it.

            • prole
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              1 year ago

              Yeah I wonder why… I guess we’ll never know

          • TimmyDeanSausage
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            21 year ago

            Believe me, I understand. It should be tied to wealth… Which will never happen. $100 is much better than thousands and/or prison time. Drugs being decriminalized, and with such a low penalty, would hopefully encourage cops to be lenient in writing those tickets. Ideally, tickets would only be issued when people are literally shooting/lighting up in public. Most people know better than to do that.

    • prole
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      11 year ago

      There needs to be a complete paradigm shift. Lots of people in this thread can’t seem to wrap their heads around the concept of “decriminalization.” That’s why people aren’t being penalized. Because it’s no longer illegal to possess. It’s really that simple.