Bill making drug possession a crime again in Oregon clears Legislature

In a bipartisan vote, the Oregon Senate on Friday easily approved a bill making possession of small amounts of hard drugs a misdemeanor crime again, signaling the end of the state’s first-in-the-nation experiment with drug decriminalization.

The bill passed the Senate 21-8, with five liberal Portland and Eugene Democrats, mostly lawmakers of color, and three conservative or libertarian members voting no.

House Bill 4002 now heads to the desk of Gov. Tina Kotek, who has not said publicly whether she will sign it.

Kotek’s spokesperson Elisabeth Shepard said legislation that makes drug possession a crime must “pass the balancing test of concrete, measurable improved outcomes for individuals who are struggling with addiction and accountability.”

The bill’s passage crystallized the public’s mounting buyers’ remorse – documented in multiple polls – that has dogged Measure 110 since its early days.

It is unusual for the Legislature to effectively reverse the will of voters so quickly, underscoring how dramatically the political landscape has changed since the law’s strong approval in 2020.

“We are moving in a direction that says to Oregonians we heard you, we respect your voices and we’re taking action,” said Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp of Bend.

The Senate also on Friday approved $211 million for projects and programs intended to expand access to substance abuse treatment, including in jails, and mental health services across Oregon. The bill also includes funding for substance abuse prevention education.

“We are investing in every corner of this state so that people can receive care for their addiction close to home,” said Sen. Elizabeth Steiner, D-Beaverton.

The bill creates a new class of misdemeanor that comes with the potential of up to 180 days in jail, but lawmakers say people found with street drugs should have multiple opportunities to enter treatment before they get sent to jail.

Under House Bill 4002, local governments and law enforcement agencies would decide whether to opt into giving people the chance to pursue substance abuse treatment before they are booked into jail. Lawmakers said 23 counties so far have signed onto the approach. Steiner said 80% of Oregonians would thus have access to that option.

Senate Majority Leader Kate Lieber, the Beaverton Democrat who co-chaired the committee charged with crafting policy responses to criticism of Measure 110, said the bill will create “a more fair treatment-focused justice system.”

Numerous members of the Senate, both Democrats and Republicans, gave heart-wrenching testimony in support for the measure about family members who have wrestled with drug addiction or died from it.

Several others cited the racially disparate impact on Black Oregonians and other people of color as the reason they opposed this change.

A study by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission, a state agency that crunches data related to the state’s criminal justice system, concluded the changes to the possession and drug-dealing statutes would disproportionately impact Black Oregonians in particular.

Senators who voted no were Brian Boquist, an independent lawmaker from Dallas; Michael Dembrow, a Portland Democrat; Lew Frederick, a Portland Democrat who is a member of the Legislature’s Black, Indigenous and People of Color Caucus; Kayse Jama, also a Portland Democrat and BIPOC caucus member; Dennis Linthicum, a conservative Republican from Beatty; James Manning Jr., a Eugene Democrat and BIPOC caucus member; Floyd Prozanski, a Eugene Democrat and former prosecutor; and Art Robinson, a libertarian Republican from Cave Junction.

The bill passed the House Thursday on a bipartisan 51-7 vote.

Measure 110 not only made minor possession of street drugs like fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin a non-criminal violation on par with a traffic ticket, but it also made available hundreds of millions of dollars from cannabis taxes to pay for a range of services, including treatment, intended to address addiction.

The law sought to provide more rehabilitation and less incarceration for drug use. It was inspired by the longstanding approach in Portugal, where drugs have been decriminalized for decades.

The Oregon decriminalization campaign was funded largely by outside interests, including the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, which poured an estimated $5 million into the effort. The alliance’s mission is to end the war on drugs.

But the law’s rollout was rocky. At one point, a member of the citizen-led council tasked with overseeing the distribution of the money to drug treatment and treatment-related services described the grant process as “total chaos.”

The council was slow to release grant dollars to expand treatment, housing and other services to drug users. The lack of treatment and detoxification beds remains dire.

The measure created a system of issuing citations to people found with street drugs, but it never took off. People with citations rarely called a helpline for substance abuse screening and referrals – an option to avoid paying a fine.

Police also were generally slow to warm up to the idea of issuing tickets.

As recently as late last year, a state audit found that much of the money set aside under the law had yet to reach people who need it.

Meanwhile, the law coincided with the startling rise of fentanyl.

Oregon has confronted an opioid epidemic extraordinary in scope and devastation, with yearly overdoses from fentanyl growing by an estimated 1,500% since before the pandemic – by far the largest increase in the United States, federal data shows.

“Behind these heart wrenching statistics are real people – our friends, family members, neighbors and children,” said Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone. “Our current approach is broken, letting people struggle with drug addiction is not compassionate.”

-- Noelle Crombie is an enterprise reporter with a focus on criminal justice. Reach her at 503-276-7184; ncrombie@oregonian.

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