Could Oregon’s decision to decriminalize hard drugs provide a model for the country?

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• Judy Woodruff:

  Well, the times, they are a changing.

  With New York's recent legalization of recreational cannabis, more than 40 percent of Americans now live in states that have embraced marijuana legalization.

  Oregon has been on the leading edge of drug law reform and, in November, became the first to decriminalize possession of hard drugs.

  As other states eye similar moves, Stephanie Sy reports on Oregon's early roll out and the obstacles ahead.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Thirty-seven-year old Sabrina Brandt has been an I.V. drug user since she was 16.

• Sabrina Brandt:

  I had mental health issues and since age 12 have been on multiple antidepressants and have multiple diagnoses. So, I think my I.V. drug use with heroin and cocaine was a way to self-medicate.

• Stephanie Sy:

  She describes her relationship with drugs as a love-hate thing.

• Sabrina Brandt:

  I felt like if I quit using drugs like right now, it would be like losing my closest confidant, like my best friend who has been with me for so many years.

• Stephanie Sy:

  If Sabrina were caught with, say, less than a gram of heroin or two grams of meth in Oregon today, she'd receive no more than the equivalent of a parking ticket, with a maximum fine of $100. She could avoid paying that by making a phone call with a counselor for a health assessment.

  It's a sea change. Measure 110, which was passed by 58 percent of Oregon voters last November, treats active drug users as potential patients, rather than criminals.

  Portland addiction specialist Dr. Andy Seaman says what they were doing wasn't working.

• Dr. Andy Seaman:

  So let's try a different way than putting people in jail, taking away their ability to get a job, taking away relationships, their housing, the very things that we know support either long-term recovery or substance use with less harm.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Prior to measure 110, in 2017, Oregon's legislature had already softened penalties on drug use, downgrading first-time possession of controlled substances to a misdemeanor, carrying a maximum sentence of a year.

  Measure 110 goes even further, drug possession convictions are projected to plummet by 90 percent.

• John Haroldson:

  Measure 110 makes the business of dealing drugs much easier.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Since the measure was implemented in February, the district attorney of Benton County, John Haroldson, a critic of Measure 110, says he's already seen it abused.

• John Haroldson:

  I have already learned of an example of a dealer weaponizing Measure 110 to deal in quantities that are at the violation level, and to carry the phone number, so that, if they get the citation, they just call and get the penalty waived.

• Stephanie Sy:

  What was he dealing?

• John Haroldson:

  Cocaine.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Haroldson favors the use of drug courts and mandated treatment.

• John Haroldson:

  There is accountability, based upon the science around psychology and behavior, what motivates individuals to change, not just to alter what they're doing in the moment, but rather to really change and move into a life of recovery.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Andy Seaman disagrees.

• Andy Seaman:

  Why mandated treatment doesn't work, addiction is a complex neurobiological process that has a lot of social factors and relational factors. And people can't be told that they have to quit and be forced into it. It doesn't work that way.

• Stephanie Sy:

  For years, Oregon has had among the worst rates of substance use disorders and mental health conditions in the country, while ranking among the lowest for access to treatment services.

  Law enforcement officials throughout the state reported methamphetamines and heroin were readily available in their communities.

• Christina Avery:

  Drugs are in our community. They are already here.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Salem resident Christina Avery can personally attest to this. She became homeless after leaving an abusive relationship and got caught up in a cycle of drug use and jail.

• Christina Avery:

  It's just like constant, you know? And every jail trip is another charge, and just that continuous cycle. And every time that I got out of jail, I was still homeless. And I had been in the system many, many times. And I never got the support that I needed until I got pregnant.

  And I was way ready and willing previous to my pregnancy.

• Stephanie Sy:

  She says there need to be more humane options for users.

  Measure 110 requires a fund be set up for addiction recovery centers and other services, such as housing. At the state capitol, legislators are scrambling to implement all of this.

  And Representative Tawna Sanchez says they are behind.

• Rep. Tawna Sanchez:

  The sad reality is, Oregon was already in almost last place for having access to resources for folks who are trying to get clean and sober.

  So, it just sort of made it really difficult to try to figure out, how do we set all of that up, when we're already in a deficit and we want to snap to and make that happen really, really quickly?

• Stephanie Sy:

  The measure funnels millions of dollars in marijuana tax revenue to the overall drug problem, but Sanchez says it takes funding from other needed services, without a new revenue stream.

• Tawna Sanchez:

  It Essentially put a cap on the existing resources that went to cities and counties, to the state police, to the school fund.

• Stephanie Sy:

  So, do you think the cart was put before the horse in a way?

• Tawna Sanchez:

  This is a cart-before-the-horse situation.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Andy Seaman says it may take time to stand up all the services, but it is the right direction.

• Andy Seaman:

  Any time there's a transformational change, people are always going to say it's not time yet and we need to do all of these things first. That's been the conversation for the last 50 years.

• Stephanie Sy:

  On Wednesdays, Sabrina Brandt volunteers at the Portland people's outreach project, a harm reduction organization that provides clean syringes, naloxone to reverse overdoses, and strips to test for the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, which increases the risk of overdosing.

• Sabrina Brandt:

  The more people that have it, the less people that are going to die, you know?

• Stephanie Sy:

  Measure 110 puts a focus on this type of intervention, and with overdose deaths spiking 40 percent in Oregon during the pandemic, it's never been more needed.

• Sabrina Brandt:

  You can't make somebody stop using drugs that doesn't want to stop using drugs. But you can cut down on the amount of harm they do to themselves and society by offering them different tools.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Like Brandt, not everyone will choose the path of sobriety.

  But Christina Avery did she hasn't done drugs for more than three years.

• Christina Avery:

  Once I tapped into the support, once I accepted what it is that I had to do or was required to do, my life changed dramatically, oh, my God, everything.

• Stephanie Sy:

  Other states trying to find a way out of the failed war on drugs have their eyes on Oregon. It's an experiment where the stakes could hardly be higher.

  For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.