Oregon passes bill to decriminalize possession of hard drugs

Drug use (and abuse) is a health issue, not a criminal one. It should be dealt with using treatment and compassion, not life-crushing legal penalties and imprisonment. Lawmakers in Oregon figured that out and passed a bill, due to be enacted by the governor, that would refocus law enforcement’s priorities – and, incidentally, help deal with racial profiling and mass incarceration.

The Oregon legislature passed a bill late last week that reclassifies possession of several drugs from a felony to a misdemeanor, reducing the punishments and expanding access to drug treatment for people without prior felonies or convictions for drug possession. Oregon lawmakers hope to encourage drug users to seek help rather than filling up the state’s prisons as an epidemic of abuse spreads.

“We are tying to move policy towards treatment rather than prison beds,” said state Sen. Jackie Winters (R), co-chair of the Public Safety Committee and a supporter of the bill. “We can’t continue on the path of building more prisons when often the underlying root cause of the crime is substance use.”

The bill also attempts to reduce racial profiling via data collection and analysis to help police departments understand when their policies or procedures result in disparities.

If signed into law, Oregon would be among several states that have reduced punishments for possession of small amounts of some illicit drugs, what some call the “decriminalization” of drug possession. Proponents say the bill marks a significant step toward addressing racial disparities in incarceration that developed as a result of the “war on drugs” approach to crime.

Of course, there’re always those willing to go on record and say something offensively clueless:

State Sen. Betsy Johnson (D), who voted against the bill, argued that downgrading drug possession is misguided and represents a “hug-a-thug policy” in which legislatures are soft on crime in an effort to reform the prison system.

“The proponents of these bills mistakenly believe that drug sentences damage people’s lives, but it’s the drugs that ruin people’s lives,” she said.

Spoken like a true Drug Warrior – oblivious to both reality and common sense. The facts, as reflected through years of real-life observation, are that the “softer” approach to drugs is the only one that works to improve the problem of drug abuse and its related societal ills. Portugal famously decriminalized all drugs in 2001, focusing instead on a strategy of healthcare and treatment, and both long-term drug use and drug-related deaths remain much lower over a decade later, amongst several other improvements. A growing number of cities around the world are setting up safe injection sites and needle exchange programs, and not only are they seeing far fewer overdoses and fatalities, they’re keeping non-violent drug users out of jail, which further helps with drug and crime rates overall.

Overwhelmingly and repeatedly, the evidence backs the commonsensical notion that treating drug addicts as human beings in need of help, rather than as evildoers who deserve punishment, is what actually gets drugs off the streets and assists users in reintegrating society. It takes a certain kind of petty, closed-minded cruelty – or an ideological one – to argue that saddling drug users, especially those who are non-violent, with lengthy prison sentences and a job-killing criminal record somehow won’t “damage people’s lives”.

(via @radleybalko)