CALL TO ACTION:
Urge The Oregon State Legislature to Emergently Walk Back MEASURE 110
by Kati Batie
Measure 110 has been a documented failure of fatal cataclysmic proportions. This measure was sold to Oregon voters as a solution to the growing drug problem across the state boasting treatment over prosecution. In the time since its implementation, the overdose rates in the state have skyrocketed right along with the number of active addicts.
The only metric related to BM 110 that has decreased is the average age of active addicts and overdose victims. If you have not been directly or even indirectly affected by this atrocious piece of legislation count yourself lucky.
Portland specifically has turned into an extremely dangerous place to travel, shop, conduct business, and just live. In comparison, the rural and frontier parts of our state don’t have the same visual of active addiction as prominently on display for all to see but we are far from unscathed.
As a result of BM110, many of us have been granted front-row seats to the rapid mental health decline and deep dive into the addiction of people we know and care about.
In the last year alone the number of overdose deaths in Harney County is chilling. You may not know or be able to name every person from your district, county, city, or town who has died as a result of drug overdose since 110’s implementation; but, for me, the faces of people I went to school with and have known most of my life will forever be seared into my mind right alongside the devastation their families have endured from their loss.
Measure 110 has stripped away ALL accountability for drug users who would have otherwise been mandated to receive services. Our state is in the throes of an unmanageable crisis. There are not enough beds for people who want help even when they decide to voluntarily seek it out.
It’s appalling when a person with a documented history of addiction and mental health struggles presents themself at a facility on the recommendation of professionals and after a lengthy, intake process is turned away because they are not currently in active crisis. How broken is broken enough to be worthy of help?
We have law enforcement that has been completely neutered of their ability to protect and serve the communities they have taken an oath to serve. The police officers and EMTs responding to drug-related calls are unintentionally ineffective despite their good intentions.
Our first responders are spritzing NARCAN on a raging wildfire in the hopes it will extinguish the blaze or at minimum prevent the fire line from growing. NEWS FLASH: IT’S NOT WORKING! This is not because they don’t have the desire to do the best they can to preserve their communities but instead, because the legislation has their hands tied.
We have officers returning drug paraphernalia to addicts after they have committed dangerous criminal acts while high and not detaining individuals from the public who have proven themselves to be dangerous and in an active state of crisis. Instead, they are handed a minimal citation right along with the paraphernalia that would have been confiscated pre-110.
I’ll be the first person to tell you that people in crisis need help. They need help even if it means they have real legal consequences to help promote accountability. Emphasis on the mental health issues that lead to addiction needs to be a top priority when making sure we are ALL helping addicts make meaningful and lasting change.
It’s asinine that the state put a pretty bow on a bill that I am certain was a failure from its first draft. Treatment over prosecution is a wonderful idea in theory but in practice, Oregon has gloriously failed the entire state.
Tying the hands of our police force statewide and removing ALL accountability is beyond irresponsible and grossly inhumane. This legislation has put those most in need of help and at risk of falling into active addiction in a fast lane to deepening addiction, overdose, and a lethal mental health crisis of pandemic proportions.
As a collective, we need to preserve the humanity of our state’s population and more aggressively protect our youth from falling victim to the open-air drug market that has overtaken our entire state.
The current legislature will be in short session until March 5. I implore you to contact your representative and demand they make walking back 110 an emergent bipartisan priority!
-Promote treatment for both addiction AND mental health by attaching real accountability in the form of legal recourse for repeat offenders
-Mandate treatment
-At a minimum add a provision ensuring that our youth don’t have a free pass to try any drugs they can get their hands on.
-Redirect/increase funding from simply providing informational resources about treatment into more beds statewide in actual treatment facilities and refund local drug treatment court programs
-Conditional prosecution if an offender doesn’t successfully complete treatment or reoffends in 2-3 years.
Take action now to save the lives of Oregonians currently in active addiction and those headed toward it! If you haven’t felt the impacts of this legislation personally, you likely will sooner than later if it doesn’t change!
Oregon State Senators: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/…/Pages/SenatorsAll.aspx
Oregon State Representatives: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/…/representativesall…
Governor Tina Kotek : https://www.oregon.gov/gov/pages/share-your-opinion.aspx
Public packs legislative hearing on 3 bills that would roll back Measure 110
Let them do whatever drugs they want. What does it matter to you? Worst case scenario for them? overdose and death! worst case scenario for you? One less liberal voter? What should you care either way?