Will Oregon End the War on Drugs in America?

This year has been a very strenuous and time for anyone living in the modern world. self-medicating is on the rise, due to a deadly pandemic that has everyone locked in their homes, So afraid, That they won't even go into seeing the doctor for help with anxiety and depression. This has caused Cannabis sales to skyrocket and many believe 2020 will be the year marijuana will be rescheduled and federally legalized in America. Oregon Has decided to use this time to their advantage and Measure 110 seems to be their silver lining. Oregon is following the lead of Spain when it comes to the new initiative on the 2020 November Ballot.

Measure 110 is the first of its kind in America since President Reagan signed the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, Establishing 29 new, mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses and appropriating an additional 1.7 billion to fund the War on Drugs. Thanks to the work of, Anthony Johnson, Haven Wheelock, and Janie Gullickson, filed the initiative on August 15, 2019, gaining 125,000 signatures in just 7 short months. Featured on this year's Ballot is Measure 110, The Drug Decriminalization and Addiction Treatment Initiative. Measure 110 would reclassify personal and non-commercial drug possession offenses. Possession of a controlled substance in Schedule I-IV, such as heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamines, would be reclassified from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class E violation resulting in a $100 fine or a completed health assessment. Individuals who manufacture or distribute illegal drugs would still be subject to a criminal penalty. The initiative would establish the Drug Treatment and Recovery Services Fund, which mandates funding of 'addiction recovery centers' within each existing coordinated care organization service area by October 1, 2021; centers provide drug users with triage, health assessments, treatment, recovery services. To fund these centers, Measure 110 dedicates all marijuana tax revenue above $11,250,000 quarterly, legislative appropriations, and any savings from reductions in arrests, incarceration, supervision resulting from the measure. The Oversight and Accountability Council established by the Director of the Oregon Health Authority would give grants from the fund to government or community-run organizations to create addiction recovery centers. The centers must provide immediate medical or other treatment 24 hours a day, health assessments, intervention plans, case management services, and peer support and outreach. The health assessments would be conducted through addiction recovery centers and include a substance use disorder screening by a certified alcohol and drug counselor. Health assessments must be completed within 45 days of the violation. Oregon Health Authority establishes a council to distribute funds and oversee the implementation of these centers. Within 180 days of the end of a two year period, the Office of Economic Analysis would be required to calculate the savings to the state due to the initiative's provisions by comparing the costs of arrests and incarceration in the two year period prior to the statute's enactment with the costs from the most recent two year period. The Oregon Secretary of State would be required to audit the fund every two years beginning no later than December 31, 2022. The audit would include data on grants given from the fund, data on addiction recovery centers, and data on the reclassification of drug offenses.

In 2014, voters approved Measure 91, which legalized recreational marijuana for individuals over the age of 21 and established the Oregon Marijuana Account. The measure required that marijuana tax revenue collected in the account be distributed as follows: 40 percent for the Common School Fund,20 percent for mental health/alcohol/drug services,15 percent for state police,20 percent for local law enforcement, and 5 percent for the Oregon Health Authority. Oregon started collecting marijuana sales taxes in 2016 generating $20.6 million in revenue. In 2019, the total marijuana sales tax revenue collected was $102 million. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2016-2017), Oregon ranked number one in the country for pain reliever misuse, number two for methamphetamines, and number four for cocaine and alcohol use disorder. In the 2017 survey, 21.5 percent of respondents 18 years or older said they had used illicit drugs in the past month. The U.S. Department of Justice released estimates of the number of people incarcerated in each state in 2016. The incarceration rate accounts for people in state prisons, federal prisons, or local jails. The average state incarceration rate in 2016 was 750 persons per 100,000 U.S. residents ages 18 or older. The incarceration rate in Oregon in 2016 was 640. The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) responded to the request of a member of the state legislature with a report describing how the initiative would impact the criminal justice system with regards to race. It was issued on August 5, 2020. The report concluded that 1,800 fewer residents would be convicted of a felony for possession of a controlled substance, and 1,900 fewer residents would be convicted of a misdemeanor for possession of a controlled substance. The report used the Raw Differential Representation (RDR) metric, which "represents the reduction in convictions that would be required to reach parity with white individuals given population differences across different races/ethnicities." A positive RDR means that the racial/ethnic group has more individuals in the criminal justice system as compared to white individuals. A negative RDR means that the racial/ethnic group has fewer individuals in the system as compared to white individuals. The study found that the initiative would decrease the RDR for Black individuals convicted of a felony for possession of a controlled substance from 24 to one, and for misdemeanors for that same class of individuals, it would decrease the RDR from 75 to three. For Hispanics, the felony conviction RDR would decrease from five to one. For misdemeanors, it would increase the RDR from 68 to one. Another initiative on the ballot is The Oregon Psilocybin Program Initiative would create a program and client screening process for administering psilocybin services under the Oregon Health Authority. On June 30, 2020, the Oregon Secretary of State completed the signature verification process for the initiative and found that 116,622 signatures of the 156,009 signatures were valid. Psilocybin mushrooms will be decriminalized in the state, just as medical cannabis. As we see the devastating effects of the unwinnable war on drugs and its impact on society and the justice system, visionaries that bring an initiative to the table, hitting the pavement to collect enough signatures, and States willing to make self-medicating a choice rather than a crime, are paving the way for a stronger and healthier society. We need more measures brought to the table and we are far from the end of this fight, but at least the conversation Please vote for the decriminalization of all drugs in your city to end the War on Drugs and help us save precious lives.

References:

oregonlive.com,oregon.gov,mpp.org,wikipedia.com,ballotpedia.com