Friend, I’m deeply disappointed to share that the Oregon House of Representatives just passed HB 4002 which rolls back Measure 110, recriminalizes drug possession, and returns to the failed approach of arresting and jailing people for drugs. It’s a false bill of goods: people struggling with drug use will go to jail and not get treatment. Despite public hearings with widespread opposition from Oregonians, it’s expected to rush through the Senate and on to Governor Kotek, who said she will sign it into law. 

This is a harmful setback for the historic progress we achieved through Measure 110 — the pioneering law that decriminalized drugs and invested in addiction services and supports. But our fight must continue: if you can, please make a special donation now to help us defend our critical progress and continue fighting to end drug criminalization nationwide. 

Make no mistake: state leaders are scapegoating Measure 110 for their own failures to address homelessness, overdose, and other public suffering in communities. Rather than meet the needs of their constituents, they are blaming an innovative policy in its infancy for decades of their own ineffectiveness. 

The fact is that drug decriminalization worked. Measure 110 is meeting its intended goals of: 

• Reducing the harms of criminalization by limiting arrests, criminal records, and the barriers to jobs and housing that come with those records. 
• Funding over $300 million to expand addiction services in its first two years alone, resulting in dramatic increases in the number of clients accessing services. 

It is Oregon leaders that didn’t work. Measure 110 is delivering on its promise even though lawmakers blocked its full potential by failing to effectively implement or improve it along the way. Despite the misleading disinformation they peddled to the public, there is not a shred of evidence supporting claims that Measure 110 increased homelessness, overdose, or crime rates. The real cause of the heartbreaking public suffering in Oregon’s streets is lawmakers’ chronic underfunding of affordable housing, effective addiction services, and accessible health care. 

Recriminalizing drugs is a false promise of change to distract from politicians’ incompetence as they approach reelection.  

• Criminalization will not solve the issues on the street because it does not address why people are homeless and unsheltered. Many people cycle in and out of jail, ending up back in the street after an arrest without meaningful connection to support or care.
• Criminalization also increases overdose risk, increases racial disparities in the criminal legal system, disrupts treatment for those who seek it, and saddles people with criminal records that are lifelong barriers to jobs, housing, and so much more.  
• Criminalization has long played a contributing role to what we are experiencing on the streets in the past and today. We cannot arrest or punish our way out of this problem. And we can’t leave people to suffer on the streets.  

Lawmakers are doubling down on their failed leadership by criminalizing people who need care, not handcuffs. HB 4002 abandons a health approach by treating drug use as a crime. Under the bill, possession of small amounts of controlled substances is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail. And many people will not have access to jail deflection programs (community-based pathways to addiction services and supports) because HB 4002 does not require deflection to be offered in every county. Oregon judges have already warned that the courts can’t handle the caseloads that will come from this flawed bill. As a result, the most common scenario is that people will be arrested, the court will dismiss their charges due to lack of counsel, and then people will return to the street without any connection to services or treatment. This bill will not do what Oregon lawmakers said it would, it’s just political cover.  

Oregon leaders sacrificed Black, Brown, and Indigenous lives to bow down to a predominantly corporate interest group led by the former chief of Oregon’s prisons. Numerous local Oregon groups that represent communities of color repeatedly attempted to engage with state leaders about how recriminalizing drug possession would harm Black and Brown communities due to targeted enforcement. Yet, they were largely ignored in the legislative process. 

We need your support during this incredibly difficult time. We’ve been doing everything we can to convince lawmakers to do the right thing. But today they’ve shown they’d rather play politics with people’s lives than solve the serious crises that are fueled by their continued inaction. Make a special gift to help us fight back against politicians who want to return to failed policies of criminalization. Donate now. 

We won’t stand idly by while politicians try to roll back the progress we’ve made to heal and restore well-being to communities who need it now more than ever. State leaders need to focus on providing more resources for the services and supports that Oregon communities desperately need, not return to failed drug war approaches. 

Despite this setback in Oregon, our movement to replace drug criminalization with care continues. Currently, there is movement in Vermont, New York, and other places to pass drug decriminalization measures. Together, we will keep advocating for effective solutions to build a better world without the drug war.