Friend, you helped us pave a new path forward with our historic win making Oregon the first state in the nation to decriminalize drugs and invest in health services when voters approved Measure 110 in November 2020.

It’s incredibly exciting to witness Oregon begin the process of building a new world without the drug war. The first phase of implementation is already showing early signs of success in delivering the promise of replacing a criminal legal approach to drugs with a public health approach:

--Drug possession arrests have significantly decreased and more than 16,000 people have accessed services since the law took effect last February 2021: [link removed]
--Last month, key decisionmakers approved the remainder of $302 million to expand critical health and addiction services for communities in every part of Oregon: [link removed]
--Brand new polling shows Oregon voters continue to overwhelmingly support the new law just like when it was first passed in the 2020 election: [link removed]

It’s been a long road to get here, but we know that fundamental transformation and building a new world takes time. Now that all the funding has been approved and is being distributed, providers will finally be able to begin the process of expanding services from harm reduction and overdose prevention to addiction treatment and recovery services to housing and employment support. Oregon is giving the rest of the country a glimpse of what is possible when we offer people support instead of punishment.

Oregon’s historic law has accelerated our fight to decriminalize drugs and invest in communities nationwide: [link removed] National polling matches the strong support we see in Oregon with the vast majority of Americans agreeing that it’s time for this new approach. We’ll continue to build on our progress by collaborating on implementation with optimism that we’ll keep seeing many more positive outcomes in Oregon. And we’re supporting similar efforts in other places, including leading campaigns in the nation’s capital of Washington, D.C. [link removed], and in Congress with the Drug Policy Reform Act, the first-ever federal decriminalization bill introduced just last year.

As we celebrate another milestone in Oregon, please keep up our momentum by taking action to demand drug decriminalization across the country: [link removed]

Sincerely,

Matt Sutton
Director, Public Relations
Drug Policy Alliance​​​

Follow us:
Facebook [link removed]
Twitter [link removed]

You have received this email because [email protected] is a member of the Drug Policy Alliance mailing list.

Privacy Policy [link removed]
Contact Us [link removed]

Drug Policy Alliance
131 West 33rd St., 15th Floor, New York, NY 10001

Unsubscribe [link removed]