Oregon Democrats Consider Re-Criminalizing Drug Use as Overdose Deaths Continue to Surge

Matt Lamb : Jan 26, 2024
LifeSiteNews.com

Oregon tried legalizing drugs. It didn't work.

(Oregon) — [LifeSiteNews.com] Oregon Democrats are backtracking on their support for the decriminalization of drugs after the past several years have not produced the promised results. (Image: Unsplash-Jonathan Gonzalez)

State Senate Majority Leader Kate Lieber has new legislation that will "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," according to the Associated Press. "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."

The legislation, House Bill 4002, was introduced on Tuesday but the legislature has not posted a copy of the bill yet.

Republican legislators want more from the state—they "have proposed harsher sanctions for possession and other drug-related offenses, such as mandatory treatment and easing restrictions on placing people under the influence on holds in facilities such as hospitals if they pose a danger to themselves or others," the AP reported.

It comes less than four years after voters in the liberal state passed Measure 110 with 58 percent of the vote. Voters in November 2020 "rejected charging drug users with criminal offenses, with voters passing a ballot measure that decriminalizes possession of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other hard drugs," the Associated Press reported at the time.

The state changed its laws to focus on treatment and diverting drug users out of prison. However, 99 percent of people ticketed for drug use declined to seek treatment.

"Measure 110 directed the state's cannabis tax revenue toward drug addiction treatment services while decriminalizing the possession of so-called ‘personal use' amounts of illicit drugs," the AP reported. "Possession of under a gram of heroin, for example, is only subject to a ticket and a maximum fine of $100."

But most drug users declined to take advantage of an opportunity to get out of tickets by calling in for substance abuse help... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

Continue reading Here.