Oregon’s troubled implementation of Measure 110 has elicited intense debates over drug policy, public safety and justice — and sowed divisions among community members, activists and political leaders in a state controlled by Democrats. The tension over Measure 110, approved by voters more than three years ago, reflects wider, politically charged questions about what role law enforcement and courts should play in the nation’s drug crisis.
“Unfortunately, in the history of drug policy, Oregon’s Measure 110 will go down in the lessons learned — rather than the lasting innovations — category,” said Brandon del Pozo, a Brown University drug policy researcher who spent more than two decades as a police officer.
Backed by the reform organization Drug Policy Alliance, Measure 110 was lauded as an innovative public health approach and a rejection of the failed war on drugs that for decades disproportionately sent people of color to prison. Supporters were inspired by Portugal, which in 2001 decriminalized certain hard drugs and is seen as a model for a public-health-first approach to drug use.
Nearly 60 percent of Oregon voters approved the measure in November 2020, as national calls for justice reform mounted after the police murder of George Floyd. U.S. fatal drug overdoses were also skyrocketing.
Measure 110 eliminated criminal punishment for possession of minor amounts of drugs such as heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine. Instead of taking suspects to jail, officers now hand users $100 citations — which can be waived if they call a state-funded hotline and enroll in an assessment for treatment. The law, which went into effect in February 2021, allocated hundreds of millions in marijuana tax revenue to bolster services for people suffering from addiction.
But Oregon had underinvested in behavioral health services for decades, leading to a dearth of providers for drug users who were meant to benefit from Measure 110, said addiction doctor Andrew Mendenhall, CEO of Central City Concern, a Portland social services nonprofit. State officials said that in 2020, when the measure passed, Oregon ranked last in the nation for providing access to substance use disorder treatment. State auditors also raised concerns about the Oregon Health Authority’s management of grants meant to bolster addiction services and groups that work to reduce the harm of drugs.
Those grants are finally flowing, but it will take years to build up the treatment workforce and infrastructure, Mendenhall said. “It’s going to take awhile in a community where people have grown impatient — there is a significant amount of compassion fatigue,” Mendenhall said.
Frustrated police officers have handed out thousands of citations, but the hotline has been little used.
“Even as it destroys your life, fentanyl use feels so good in the short term that many people won’t try to give it up without the external pressure that Measure 110 eliminated,” said Keith Humphreys, a Stanford University psychiatry professor and former White House drug policy adviser.
Illicit fentanyl was among the confluence of factors that hampered Measure 110 from the start. The deadly drug, which can be up to 50 times stronger than heroin, proliferated on the West Coast later than in regions on the other side of the country, said Alex H. Kral, an epidemiologist who…
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