Oregon Drug Decriminalization was always going to fail. amirite?

There is also the fact that addiction drives other petty crime...shop lifting, auto break-ins, muggings, etc. Addicts who need to fix their junk sickness don't give a f about breaking other aws. In San Francisco, there is virtually NO consequence to shoplifting if the value is under $1k.

by Outrageous-Delay 6 months ago

Also the increased number of mind altering drugs people use, the more people will drive on them, and the more random innocent people will be killed in crashes

by Anonymous 6 months ago

So you want prohibition again then?

by TheoryEastern5617 6 months ago

Prohibition failed in part because we let alcohol become a social norm, so at that point banning it did nothing. Hard drugs are not normalized, so their ban actually does prevent a lot of people from even trying them

by Anonymous 6 months ago

So if you had it your way alcohol would be banned too?

by TheoryEastern5617 6 months ago

In a perfect world either yes, I think you can make the argument that alcohol objectively does more hard than good in society, weather or not you or I like to drink it. (Which I totally do)

by Anonymous 6 months ago

It doesn't matter if the law isn't enforced. I go through downtown Portland everyday and see people on the street doing hard drugs out in the open.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

Tl;dr: we shouldn't care about the drugs, we should care about what people do when on drugs.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

But the people who want decriminalization are generally the same people yelling to defund the police.

by Dazzling_Current_926 6 months ago

The part that people don't hear when talking about defunding the police is that it's about reallocating the funding to other services. Drug addiction is an issue, but the root of drug addiction tends to be struggles with mental health. Police aren't equipped to handle mental health issues. The shoot first, as questions later results in a lot of sick people dying. Portugal decriminalized drugs, but also offered the supporting services to deal with the root causes of why someone is an addict.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

That sounds great in theory, but social workers aren't equipped to roll around with violent tweakers, either.

by Dazzling_Current_926 6 months ago

But that's the thing, often they're more well versed with deescalation techniques than cops are. Funding a class of social worker that specializes in this type of stuff is exactly what the whole thing is about. That police shouldn't be just responders for every situation.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

I'm a social worker. I taught de-escalation to law enforcement. We went on calls together. It was a good system and would fall under the "defund the police" ideology because funds were shifted away from part of the police budget to fund the training of cops and the hiring of social workers.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

People get so hung up on the idea that defunding means policing should go away, they can't hear what the reallocation of funds actually does.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

Frankly, I'm sure the police would be delighted to not have to be involved in these situations. But just like some cops get killed every year, some of these mental health workers will get killed. It will be part of the job.

by Dazzling_Current_926 6 months ago

Do you have any idea how often mental healthcare workers already get attacked ? It already is part of the job

by No_Safe118 6 months ago

Sure, I realize that. But sending out social workers to get killed by raving drug lunatics also does not seem an effective solution.

by Dazzling_Current_926 6 months ago

Luckily that imagined scenario you made up in your head isn't how this would work in real life, but thanks for the concern

by Competitive_Long_106 6 months ago

I would have disagreed with you, but, well, what you said seems to make sense.

by carminedavis 6 months ago

I strongly believe there is a certain class of addicts that belong in jail. In Portland for instance, where a scenario like this is an everyday occurrence, someone shooting up on a sidewalk who then discards their hiv infected needle in a public space deserves to be punished for that. Being addicted alone is not deserving of jail time, but if you let your addiction spiral to the point of you being a literal hazard to public safety, something needs to be done about it. This is what Oregon fails to realize, the people creating public disturbances with their drug usage are largely the ones who don't want rehabilitation, it was a horrible idea from the get go the was guaranteed to exacerbate every issue the city already had.

by Different_Waltz5650 6 months ago

That's a lot of words just to say litter laws should be enforced. Not sure what it has to do with drug criminalization though.

by No_Anxiety 6 months ago

Yeah and that ideal ended up causing massive crime and a carpet of needles all over.

by Head-Obligation 6 months ago

I think the drug addicts hold 100% of the blame.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

Drug addicts are just drug addicts, the politicians down in Salem really sold this as a bill of goods that they had no intention of following through with.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

If you're only kind when it benefits you, you're not actually being kind

by dameonheathcote 6 months ago

I think you're inconvenient to look at. I think you're inconvenient to drive by. I think you're inconvenient to smell. I think you're inconvenient to be around. You make my life worse. And I think you should be punished by law because I feel that way about you. Do you think that's fair or right? If the answer is no, why?

by frath 6 months ago

Right! Same with people who have debts! They should go to a special prison where they can "work" their debts off. Also definitely alcohol causes a lot of problems, ya think we should maybe just ban it? Anyone see an issue? Tell you what, I think we should just pick a religion, mandate everyone sign up. If we were all the same religion, life would be far less complicated. You say you're "not the most selfish guy out there." Seems to me like you think we're all here to be "acceptable" to you. So I guess I hope your a troll, cuz if this is really you you ought to feel a level of shame I don't reckon you're capable of.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

You sound really reasonable but there's like ten guys behind and with you who really do want to put people in camps and liquidate them for being inconvenient in some way or other.

by Pfefferhermann 6 months ago

Really that's the best response you could come up with?

by Anonymous 6 months ago

Because most ppl agree with him and not you. That's why this got re-criminalized. Law is just an expression of the public condemnation. Ppl are tired of dealing with homeless, simple as.

by Large-Welder 6 months ago

I have no compassion and I ask none from you. When our turn comes, we will not apologize for the terror.

by Used-Woodpecker-4601 6 months ago

I've found that most wannabee revolutionaries online are the same people who get anxious when ordering food over the phone.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

Hmm... going to have to disagree personally. If the visible drug addicts ODing on the side of the road were in jail maybe they'd actually get help and get cured of their addiction. Removing these people from our society is the first step in having a functional society.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

Maybe if our jails actually had the goal of rehabilitation. But we have some of if not the worst recidivism rates in the developed world

by Anonymous 6 months ago

I think it's a great idea to have a set of prisons dedicated to getting people back on their feet.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

And you think the solution.... is jail? Atleast just say forced rehab if you wanna force them to go somewhere for doing drugs.

by Friendly-Author 6 months ago

If the visible drug addicts ODing on the side of the road were in jail maybe they'd actually get help and get cured of their addiction. Removing these people from our society is the first step in having a functional society. Are these two sentences not obviously contradictory to you?

by Anonymous 6 months ago

Classic conservative narrative spin. Don't interact with the argument being made, just say "it's an absolute disaster", and somehow end up complaining about the word "woke".

by Anonymous 6 months ago

Prepare yourself for the conservative finisher "(whatever place I'm in) has a well known liberal bias!"

by Anonymous 6 months ago

So punish them for ruining their lives?

by EntertainmentEasy 6 months ago

Well you can't force aid onto them. Unless you're pro psych ward, it's either that or deal with the consequences of their presence on the street. Which a lot of ppl are tired of.

by Large-Welder 6 months ago

"Decimalization" of the drug use did not benefit society or the individual. Wider drug use with no repercussions lead to more crime and more drug users. The individuals need help. Whether voluntary or involuntary (incarceration), they need help.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

To call criminal incarceration "help" is absolutely koo-koo bananas. "No repercussions" ??? You don't think drug addicts suffer repercussions? Weather criminalized or not.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

Criminals go to jail and have fewer access to the drugs they are addicted to. They also get medical treatment. The failed experiment showed increase in crime and increase drug use. You think that is a good idea?

by Anonymous 6 months ago

It must be cool to have conservatism and dunking on the left as your entire personality.

by Recent_Tennis 6 months ago

Nah it's not cool. Everyone hates people like that. They're insufferable being they always think they're right and somehow they're nearly always wrong. They never understood what Democrats and liberals were proposing to begin with, yet Strawman their beliefs because they can't actually argue with what they really intended.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

"It was created because far left Oregonians". Source? Wasn't it because criminalization doesn't work?

by Caitlyn43 6 months ago

Corporate, Law Enforcement and Rethuglican malingering is behind a lot of this disinformation copaganda.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

....But public health advocates behind the law say the repeal is coming before decriminalization had a chance to work. They point to Portugal, which saw a 75 percent drop in drug deaths since it adopted the same strategy in 2001 through 2022, as evidence that Oregon is giving up too quickly. Portugal's success, they point out, wasn't achieved overnight or even in three years. Oregon's experiment "was not given the time that it needed," said Tera Hurst, the executive director of Oregon's Health Justice Recovery Alliance. "This is a political response to a serious problem," she said of the measure's likely repeal.... I'm not sure I can really agree with the inevitable failure as you see it.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

That's still gonna and is happening without decriminalizing it tho

by dameonheathcote 6 months ago

I. really don't think we should be monetizing crack cocaine and heroin.

by Anonymous 6 months ago

If it's decriminalized and the worst ticket you get from it is loitering wilst smoking crack, then we need our fingers deeper in the pie. Moneys gotta come from somewhere, especially for the large overhaul that treatment and the other side of the coin of decriminalization implies. Taxing the drugs that are going to be available, and using the "problem" to pay for the problem seems like a logical jumping off point

by Anonymous 6 months ago

The roll out, media coverage and just general timing were all bad things for it. Def needs more time too. Its all such a slow processes and people want answers now unfortunately.

by Spiritual_Reward 6 months ago

Damage control costs less than incarceration. Incarceration gives free prison labor. So guess which always wins.