The bill would recriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs as a low-level misdemeanor, enabling police to confiscate them and crack down on their use on sidewalks and in parks, its authors said.

Democratic lawmakers in Oregon on Tuesday unveiled a sweeping new bill that would undo a key part of the state’s first-in-the-nation drug decriminalization law, a recognition that public opinion has soured on the measure amid rampant public drug use during the fentanyl crisis.

The bill would recriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs as a low-level misdemeanor, enabling police to confiscate them and crack down on their use on sidewalks and in parks, its authors said. It also aims to make it easier to prosecute dealers, to access addiction treatment medication, and to obtain and keep housing without facing discrimination for using that medication.

  • Political Incorruption@lemmy.world
    8·
    5 months ago

    A Federal program to catch drug abusers when they fall would reduce the need for consequences when they make camp to get their fix. As it stands, drug abusers will go to cities with liberal treatment and make a mess of it.

    I visited downtown Portland last year by train and it was a depressing experience. On one side of a public park there was what looked like a potentially dead person wrapped in a blanket with a graffiti backdrop, and on the other side a drugged out guy pissing in the middle of the street. I feel bad for these addicts, but they can live like that…