Measure 110 Had Its Limits, But Oregon Re-Criminalizing Drug Possession Is a Step Backwards

In 2020, the state of Oregon passed Measure 110. The point of this Measure was to decriminalize all drugs. Instead of jail time, the punishment was a $100 fine or a completed health assessment by a qualified center. It took less than four years for this experiment to end. Late last month, Oregon re-criminalized low-level drug possession due to an increase in opioid deaths and nuisances related to public drug use. My reaction is similar to my reaction last week when Idaho got rid of its syringe services programs: re-criminalizing is not going to do any favors. Below are some preliminary findings about the Oregon experiment to make me wonder about Oregon's recent decision.  

Measure 110 did not increase drug deaths. Brown University Professor Brandon del Pozo found that once adjusted for the rapid increase in fentanyl that came to Oregon later than it did the other states, there was no association between Measure 110 and an increase in fentanyl. These findings are consistent with a study from JAMA Psychiatry (Joshi et al., 2023).

Measure 110 did not encourage drug use. There are some preliminary survey data to suggest that this is the case. An RTI International survey of 467 Oregonian drug users found that only 1.5 percent of respondents started using drugs after Measure 110 began. 

There have been fewer arrests since Measure 110. Since Measure 110, there have been 83 percent fewer possession of controlled substances (PCS) arrests (Russoniello et al., 2023). Fewer arrests mean fewer interactions with the criminal justice system, particularly in terms of prosecution and incarceration. This translates into fewer law enforcement costs. 

Postscript. There are limitations to the findings here, at least in part because it has been less than four years. I made that caveat last year when analyzing the public health impacts of marijuana legalization. Between a fentanyl wave that swept the United States, the COVID pandemic, and a delay in funding for harm reduction programs, I am not surprised. It is also an issue that Oregon did not take it far enough. Similar to what I brought up with last year on Maine's partial prostitution legalization, doing it partway can either cause more problems or keep many problems intact. As Cato Institute scholar Jeffrey Miron brings up, "Legalizing [or, to a lesser extent, decriminalizing] possession, but not production, does not eliminate the underground market, so violence and quality control issues remain." Until these drugs are brought to the legal market, consumers are unsure as to the dose or purity of what they are purchasing. 

There is potential for success of decriminalization. As I pointed out last year, Portugal's twenty-plus years of drug decriminalization has been a success. However, without addressing the decriminalization or even legalization of the production, the success for decriminalization is going to be limited, especially in comparison to legalization. 

In spite of Oregon only partially decriminalizing, it beats the alternative of taking the step backwards that Oregon did. Oregon gave up on serious drug policy reform too soon. All re-criminalization is going to do is divert drug users to jails while doing very little to deter illicit drug usage. Prohibition and criminalization compound the effects of what is a public health issue, not a criminal issue. Why Oregon is going to revert back to prohibition, the very policy that got the Beaver State into this mess in the first place, is indeed a puzzlement.