Under the new law, possession of small amounts of drugs such as heroin or methamphetamine will be as a misdemeanor and punishable by up to six months in jail.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed a bill Monday restoring criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of hard drugs, reversing a first-in-the-nation law that advocates had hoped would help quell a deepening addiction and overdose crisis.
Under the new law, the possession of small amounts of drugs such as heroin or methamphetamine will be classified as a misdemeanor and punishable by up to six months in jail.
Drug treatment will be offered as an alternative to criminal penalties.
They decriminalized without a real plan to help people.
They had the plan, they just neither funded nor implemented it.
Exactly. The elected officials of Oregon failed and now they are covering for their failure by undoing the will of the voters instead of enacting the will of the voters.
I don’t even get how they have the authority to do this. Measure 110 was enacted as an amendment to the Oregon constitution, so it seems like it would require another amendment to rescind that and recriminalize possession.
Don’t forget the fact that many of the idiots who live near Idaho actively boycott legislative sessions because being reasonable makes them sad.
100x this. They copied other plans but skipped the extensive, expensive rehabilitation part. We should have ponied up the money and done it right.
I think having no plan is still better than throwing people in jail for this lol
Possession of heroin and methamphetamine should absolutely be legal in my opinion, but the legalization will only work with a universal healthcare system also in place. It’s not even about people who get addicted after taking them recreationally. Drug addiction, especially opioid addiction, is often about treating chronic pain, not getting pleasure out of it. People either got addicted to them from their doctors getting them hooked on them in the first place and they can no longer afford to get them by prescription or they resorted to them out of desperation because they couldn’t afford to see a doctor about the chronic pain in the first place.
And then there are the people who resort to these substances because they have no other way to escape, even temporarily, from the horrible conditions that come from being poor in America.
Sure, there are wealthy drug addicts too, but they aren’t going to be the ones being put in jail over this.
The wealthy ones still get good quality cocaine without having to worry that they’re getting an accidental speedball. That’s even hard as a middle class casual user.
“Good quality” is actually another reason to legalize all drugs. To stop them from being tainted.
You don’t have to convince me. I was a very casual (once a year or so) user but absolutely will not touch the shit going around right now. I’ve seen several accidental speedballs and I would almost swear there’s a variety of coke going around here that’s just cheap meth cut with lidocaine judging by the way people are acting on it.
Just 4 years ago it was pretty easy to find quality illicit drugs at reasonable prices. Now it’s all some variety of cheap opioid or cheap meth.
I’m fine because I don’t need it to function or escape. I have alcohol for that. I actually feel really terrible for the people who are using these unregulated things to self medicate because it’s a fucking grab bag out there.
Just make sure you’re carrying a large amount and you should be good.
Oregon doesn’t like people who half-ass things.
Unless you’re half-assing drug policy, then it’s great
I’m glad hard drugs doesn’t include mushrooms.
Where do you see that?
Actually, your comment made me dig into this a bit more. It looks like psilocybin is only legal for therapy. Essentially, you need a license.
https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2024R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/HB4002
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors475A.html
Drug decriminalization is a great way to bring people back from the fringes of society. But it only really works if you invest in their rehabilitation. previously we were attacking them for trying to escape their poor life circumstances through whatever means available to them. Stopping that is great, but is only half the equation. It’s like we have a victim of a random shooting, and all we’ve done is stop external bleeding. The hard part, the rehabilitative part, means putting in the effort to stop internal bleeding, pull out the bullet, and prescribe antibiotics. I was just reading on another Lemmy comment section about how much retired Military people have come to rely on the basic income provided to them through the armed forces. They were talking about how much it helped them, and how it should be given to everyone. I’m in agreement.
When Sweden solved homelessness, they did it by giving people what they needed to survive. An apartment, healthcare, help.
If you want to help people, you can’t have one without the other
The Atlantic had a good article on this a couple weeks ago (no paywall). It sure feels like a move in the wrong direction, but the authors note Oregon’s overdose deaths grew way faster than the rest of the country after decriminalization. Their take is that Oregon already had pretty good laws place, and that a little bit of a legal threat can help to encourage addicts to seek treatment (and that the treatment system needs to be better funded).
Private prison needs workers? Why else would you send someone to jail for a gram of coke and 6 fucking months. Its not that they will get better in jail, at least not in the us.
Why are all of you cheering this on like its a good decision??? What the fuck is wrong with all of you??
Throwing junkies in prison is not any better than just letting them to their vices. Prison solves nothing and just makes people worse.
Either ACAB or they aren’t and yes they fucking are.
Literally not one comment in this thread is cheering this on.
