Measure 110, an experiment approved in 2020, gets overhauled as state grapples with fentanyl crisis and growing public drug use
Oregon lawmakers have moved to reintroduce criminal penalties for the possession of hard drugs, in effect ending the state’s groundbreaking three-year decriminalization experiment.
In 2020, nearly 60% of voters moved to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs with the passage of Measure 110, but the new law had grown increasingly controversial as the state grappled with the fentanyl crisis and growing public drug use.
Lawmakers had recently reached a bipartisan deal to undo a key aspect of the law and make minor possession a misdemeanor, while also allocating millions of dollars toward specialty court programs as well as mental health and addiction treatment.
If Fent hadn’t gone buck wild in recent years I think things might have played out different. Obviously 'rona didn’t help things either.
Fent has been prevalent for over a decade now. It’s just that the other drugs have evaporated, so its almost the only opoid available. Heroin is non existent on the east coast, and anything other than tar is fent no matter where you are. Pills are selling for more than a dollar a milligram, and you can’t always even be sure that they aren’t a fent press anyway.
Fent has existed since before like 2010 but it hasn’t been the opiod du juor until much more recently. 2013 it was a radar blip, but 2024 its the whole damn radar.