Oregon House Passes Bill To Reverse Voter-Approved Drug Decriminalization Law

“Criminalization for drug addiction is not the answer. I fear it may be taking a step backward.”

By Ben Botkin, Oregon Capital Chronicle

The Oregon House on Thursday passed a proposal to reshape the state’s response to the fentanyl addiction and overdose crisis and put more power in the hands of police and prosecutors to rein in drug users.

The bipartisan vote of 51-7 kicks House Bill 4002 to the Senate, the last step in a long legislative process that started last fall. The bill would unwind voter-passed Measure 110 by putting in place a new misdemeanor charge for drug possession, a move intended to encourage people to enter treatment programs rather than face charges and go to jail. Potential jail time for misdemeanor drug possession would only kick in if a defendant violates their probation.

The bill represents a bipartisan compromise between Democrats and Republicans that was hashed out over hours-long meetings dating to September, with dozens of witnesses from advocacy groups, law enforcement, family members of overdose victims and behavioral health providers giving testimony. Oregon’s district attorneys, police and sheriffs support it, as do cities and business groups like the Portland Metro Chamber of Commerce and Washington County Chamber of Commerce.

“We are in the midst of a profound public health crisis and we must meet it with compassion and courage,” said Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Portland. “These are humans.”

The bill would undo a key provision of the voter-passed Measure 110, which decriminalized possession of small amounts of hard drugs and enacted a system of $100 citations that a person could avoid if they obtained a health assessment. Police have said the citation system lacked the teeth necessary to encourage people to enter treatment, and a majority of Oregonians in surveys have voiced support for repealing Measure 110 or parts of it.

At the beginning of this 2024 #orleg session, Democrats committed to responding to the crisis unfolding in our streets with additional policies and investments to address addiction, behavioral health, and public safety concerns. pic.twitter.com/KjFeM7pryl

— OR House Democrats (@ORHouseDems) February 29, 2024

A group of prominent Oregonians, including Nike co-founder Phil Knight, launched a plan to ask voters in November to reverse the measure with restored criminal penalties and mandatory treatment for users. But after the House vote, the Coalition to Fix and Improve Ballot Measure 110, announced it would withdraw its petitions if the bill passes the Senate and Gov. Tina Kotek (D) signs it into law.

The bill would create an unclassified misdemeanor that would carry potential jail time of up to 30 days only for probation violations or up to 180 days when a defendant’s probation is revoked. But they would get an early release from jail if they entered inpatient or outpatient treatment.

The bill would maintain the measure’s provision that puts a share of cannabis revenue toward addiction services and programs.

A solemn mood settled in the chamber at the start of discussions with Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend and co-chair of the joint addiction committee, introducing the bill. He thanked Oregonians who testified before the committee about their losses of loved ones and their hard-fought triumphs over addiction.

“We have to acknowledge the tragedies,” said Kropf, also a former Deschutes County prosecutor. “We have to figure out a way to build on the successes.”

Other lawmakers shared stories about people struggling with addiction they have met in their professional or personal lives. Dexter, a physician, talked about working with a man who had a methamphetamine addiction.

And Rep. James Hieb, R-Canby, spoke about the loss of his younger brother to a fentanyl overdose in 2014, declaring, “I believe that this bill will help addicts.”

Three Republican and four Democratic lawmakers voted against the bill, spurred in part by concerns that it either did not go far enough or would disproportionately put people of color in jail.

“Criminalization for drug addiction is not the answer,” said Rep. Travis Nelson, D-Portland.

Nelson, a Black lawmaker and nurse, said the bill falls short of the comprehensive strategy needed to tackle the issue and will disproportionately harm people of color.

“I fear it may be taking a step backward,” Nelson said.

Oregonians expected real solutions from the 2024 legislature to the addiction and housing crisis in our communities. HB 4002 isn't a solution. It's going to inflict harm on countless Oregonians. Thank you, Representative @IamTravisNelson for saying #NOtoHB4002. #orpol#orlegpic.twitter.com/snwquF22d2

— Oregonians for Safety and Recovery (@SafetyRecovery) February 29, 2024

When the Legislature’s joint addiction committee debated the bill, civil rights advocates, including the ACLU of Oregon, warned that Oregon’s system of dealing with drug users would deteriorate because of inequities in the legislation.

For example, counties would have the option, but not a mandate, to set up new, state-funded deflection programs that offer people a chance to avoid charges after an initial encounter with a police officer.

So far, 23 of Oregon’s 36 counties have signaled their intent to set up the new programs. Defendants in all Oregon’s counties, not just the 23, would have additional opportunities to enter diversion programs with treatment and the expungement of charges.

The bill would provide about $30.5 million for counties and community mental health programs, which contract with counties to provide services to people in addiction.

That’s part of an estimated $211 million that lawmakers want to put toward addiction-related services, treatment and programs. That total includes more funding for court programs, community mental health clinics, treatment programs, new residential treatment facilities and other services like addiction medication in jails.

Measure 110 providers, who’ve already received $276 million in cannabis revenue, will continue to receive that funding for housing, treatment and services from peers, who have experienced addiction and recovery themselves and are trained to work with people in addiction.

“The public health approach of expanding treatment without punishment was the right approach, but HB 4002 doubles down on the same mistakes the state made in implementing Measure 110,” said Tera Hurst, executive director of the Health Justice Recovery Alliance, a nonprofit with members and providers who give Measure 110-funded services. “Unfortunately, it will be people struggling with addiction—especially those living outside and Black and brown Oregonians—who will pay the biggest price. And our communities will be no safer for it.”

This story was first published by Oregon Capital Chronicle.

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Oregon Advocates Launch Drug Decriminalization And Treatment Ballot Campaign

Get ready to hear a whole lot more about drug policy in Oregon in the lead-up to November’s election.

Reform advocates on Saturday announced the official launch of a ballot measure campaign “designed to establish a more humane and effective approach to drugs.” If approved, the initiative would fund the expansion of access to drug treatment and—in a historic first—decriminalize low-level possession of all drugs statewide.

The measure, titled the “Drug Treatment and Recovery Act,” represents an effort to reframe drug use as a public health issue rather than a matter of criminal justice. The proposal would take money from the state’s existing marijuana tax revenue and use it to establish addiction recovery centers throughout the state. It would expand services focusing on evidence-based treatment, provide housing support for people with substance use disorders and emphasize a harm-reduction approach to overdose prevention and drug education.

While campaign is quick to emphasize that the measure “does not legalize any drugs,” it would decriminalize possession of small amounts of illegal drugs.

Chief Petitioner Janie Gullickson, Exec. Director of the Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon announces that the #MoreTreatment campaign already has more than 20 organizational endorsements including @bridges2change, @miraclesclub, @ACLU, @ACLU_OR, & @PoliceForReform. pic.twitter.com/slPAiOjLm6

— More Treatment. A Better Oregon. (@moretreatment) February 29, 2020

State laws around the manufacture and distribution of controlled substances would remain the same, with some offenses carrying felony charges. What would change is how the law would regard possession of small amounts for personal use. Instead of being charged as a misdemeanor crime, possession would be charged as a civil infraction—a class E violation, punishable by a maximum $100 fine and no jail time. The fine could be avoided by completing a health assessment through an addiction recovery center, which would include a screening by licensed health care worker.

The goal of IP 44, advocates say, is to ensure that people have access to effective drug treatment rather than try to address the problem through policing and punishment—a strategy that has shown to be ineffective over decades of the war on drugs.

Also on Saturday, the campaign announced its first 20 endorsements, including from ACLU Oregon, United Seniors of Oregon, Oregon Latino Health Coalition, Oregon State Council For Retired Citizens, Human Rights Watch and Drug Policy Action. Other supporting organizations represent victims of violence, rental tenants, concerned mothers and a variety of other communities.

IP 44 can save lives and help so many people who are struggling. <3 if you agree with Brent that it's time for a better approach to drug addiction. pic.twitter.com/p9vfXmRgWe

— More Treatment. A Better Oregon. (@moretreatment) February 22, 2020

A newly released campaign video makes the case for reform through the story of Janie Gullickson, the executive director of the Mental Health and Addiction Association of Oregon and one of the chief petitioners on the proposed measure. Gullickson, who describes herself as “a person in long-term recovery,” was addicted to drugs for more than 22 years, she says in the video, before treatment and recovery taught her “a new way to live.”

“Instead of access to treatment, what we have today is actually criminalization of addiction. That ruins lives,” Gullickson said. “Addiction cost me my kids, my education and my freedom.”

Oregon ranks near last among all U.S. states in access drug addiction treatment, the campaign notes, pointing to the federal government’s own data on patients “needing but not receiving treatment at a specialty facility for substance use.” Though Gullickson was in the system—she’d been in and out of jail multiple times—she says incarceration never addressed her addiction or its underlying causes.

“I started getting in that cycle of incarceration, and in jail there wasn’t access to treatment,” she says. “There wasn’t any social worker or case manager that came in and asked, ‘What is the underlying issue? How can we help you?’ No. I just repeated that cycle over and over and over.”

After finally receiving treatment, Gullickson said, her life changed. “Treatment was the turning point, that key piece that taught me a new way to live,” she said. “Today I have a relationship with my children that had been completely severed. I was there for my parents as a daughter they could feel safe with as they went through the end of their life.”

The proposal to expand the state’s treatment services and decriminalize drugs was first filed in September, and the campaign began limited signature gathering late last year as a test of how viable the measure is. Now that advocates have decided to go ahead with the effort to qualify for the ballot, they need to collect 112,020 valid signatures from registered voters.

The IP 44 campaign is expected to release updated signature numbers next week, but according to state filings, the campaign as of Friday had collected 48,471 signatures, which still need to be validated.

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Chief Petitioner, @anthonyj1977, and Dora the office dog are pretty excited for Saturday! See you there? ••• #pdx #pdxevents #orpol #moretreatment #or #oregon #pnw #dogsofinstagram #dogsofinsta #campaignlife

A post shared by Yes on 110 (@voteyeson110) on Feb 28, 2020 at 8:25am PST

A separate Oregon ballot campaign is attempting to qualify a measure that would legalize the therapeutic use of psilocybin, the primary active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms. Retail sales would not be allowed, but adults would be able to visit licensed facilities and have the drug administered under medical supervision. That campaign had filed a total of 38,805 signatures as of Friday.

One notable group hasn’t yet taken an official position on the new drug treatment and decriminalization campaign: Oregon’s teachers’ union. The Oregon Education Association last year that it “supports these policy objectives” of the decriminalization measure, but has concerns over how its treatment component would be funded. IP 44 would redirect some cannabis tax revenue away from schools, which the group called “troubling” in a comment filed with state elections officials in October.

The measure “essentially caps the marijuana tax revenue available to fund schools, by requiring the transfer of all revenues in excess of $11,250,000 ($11.25 million) quarterly into the new drug treatment fund,” the union said. That could mean as much as a two-thirds reduction in cannabis taxes going to schools.

Activists in other states, meanwhile, are working to put a host of marijuana-focused reform measures before voters this fall. State voters in South Dakota will vote on both a medical marijuana and an adult-use measure this year, and Mississippi advocates collected enough signatures to qualify an initiative to legalize medical cannabis. In New Jersey, the legislature approved a resolution late last year that will put full legalization on the ballot.

Ohio Marijuana Legalization Measure To Be Filed For November Ballot This Week

Photo courtesy of Markus Spiske.

Oregon Senate Votes To Legalize Interstate Marijuana Imports And Exports

The Oregon Senate passed a landmark bill on Wednesday that would let the governor make agreements with other states to provide for the exportation and importation of marijuana products across state lines—but it will only go into effect if the federal government changes its own policies to allow such activity.

Oregon senators approved the legislation in a 19 to 9 vote, and it now heads to the House.

Producers, wholesalers and researchers would be able to take cannabis across state lines if the government forges an agreement with the receiving state. There would also be requirements related to the health, safety and labeling standards, and the products would have to be tracked.

Any marijuana coming into Oregon would have to be tested and meet the state’s quality control standards.

Oregon paves the way for future cannabis commerce between states, if it becomes permissible under federal law. #orpol#orleghttps://t.co/KQVFLjh3oF

— OR Senate Democrats (@ORSenDemocrats) May 15, 2019

“Oregon is a trailblazer, and this is another way that we can lead the nation regarding this relatively new legal industry,” Sen. Floyd Prozanski (D), the bill’s chief sponsor, said in a press release. “Several states have legalized cannabis and so this puts Oregon in a great position to enter into agreements with other states, if and when the day comes that interstate cannabis trade is allowed by federal law.”

“With the passage of Senate Bill 582, Oregon will be ahead of the game in this burgeoning industry,” he said.

Currently, federal law strictly prohibits marijuana from being introduced into interstate commerce. Stopping cannabis products from crossing state lines was one of several federal enforcement priorities included in an Obama-era Justice Department memo aimed at reducing federal intervention in local marijuana laws.

In the event that the federal government does change cannabis laws to allow interstate commerce, or issues a new memo stating that it wouldn’t prosecute such activity, the legislation could be particularly helpful to Oregon’s marijuana market, which is struggling with an oversupply of cannabis. Being able to export some of that extra product could alleviate the problem.

Industry representatives in the state celebrated the bill’s passage out of the Senate.

“There’s still a lot of work to do, but today’s Senate vote is a major step forward for the future of Oregon’s cannabis industry—and in securing our position as the country’s leading cannabis exporter” Casey Houlihan, executive director of the Oregon Retailers of Cannabis Association (ORCA), said in a press release.

Gov. Kate Brown (D) has indicated that she is supportive of the legislative effort, saying in February that lawmakers are “trying to make sure that Oregon is well-placed in terms of the industry if and when—I would say when—the federal government moves forward.”

That said, Brown said her immediate focus was on ensuring that cannabis businesses have access to financial institutions first—something that may see some congressional action following a favorable House committee vote on a bipartisan marijuana banking bill.

Treasury Secretary Says Marijuana Businesses Shouldn’t Get Federal Tax Credit

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.