Oregon's Utopian Drug Law Meets Reality

[Rightguide]

How Oregon turned on its own trailblazing drug law: ‘Not the utopia we were promised’​

A bold vision, or a ‘dystopian nightmare’?​

When Oregon voters passed Measure 110 with nearly 60% support, the vision that advocates laid out was grand.

The state would deconstruct the existing punitive and ineffective system that criminalized drugs, and build a new apparatus in its place. People would no longer face criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of substances like fentanyl and methamphetamine; long-calcified pathways through the criminal justice system that reinforced societal inequalities would be abandoned; treatment options for those struggling with addiction – funded with hundreds of millions of dollars from the state’s legal marijuana tax – would be widely available.

But Measure 110 passed on the eve of a tsunami of twin public health crises in Oregon: an epidemic of cheap, widely available and extremely dangerous fentanyl, and a sharp escalation in the shortage of affordable housing.

Recent federal data show Oregon had the steepest increase in the country of overdose deaths since the pandemic started – by a staggering 1,500%. Nearly 1,000 people in Oregon died from opiate overdoses in 2022. Public health officials warn the crisis shows no signs of abating.

Critics point to this steep overdose rise as a sign of Measure 110’s failing, but any definitive insight as to the law’s impact is likely years away. A recent study of its reach so far – by research organization RTI International – showed no correlation between the rise in overdoses and drug legalization. Other western states such as California and Washington are also overwhelmed by a devastating fentanyl crisis, the study’s authors point out, and have seen similar trends in overdoses and addiction without passing a sweeping decriminalization law like Oregon’s.

More here on Democrat Utopianism:https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/21/oregon-drug-law-measure-110-backlash

Wherever they rule they destroy. The question is is there time to fix the damage?

 

[Chernosoth]

The whole west coast is becoming the new rust belt, plus there's increasing drought to make it less habitable. There will be housing shortages when entire towns burn down every year. A quick OD may be kinder than dying of thirst or fire.

 

[HisArpy]

Is anyone even considering the consequences of what to do with all the new addicts of hard drugs as a result of this social experiment?

Once the laws are repealed every one of those addicts will be a criminal. Yet one could argue that the State actually created them in order to be able to punish them later because almost anyone could see what the inevitable result of the decriminalization laws would be.

Kind of like how "defund the police" has now led to some cities/states thinking of using the National Guard as police. A sort of undeclared martial law as a direct result of getting rid of/reducing law enforcement.

In fact, one could almost see how the entire thing is planned out - liberalize what is now criminal so that an eventual crackdown against the people can begin. Perhaps the chaos was intentionally created just so that the people will throw away their rights to quell what they voted to establish.

It's a theory.

 

[Fuzzy1975]

How Oregon turned on its own trailblazing drug law: ‘Not the utopia we were promised’​

​

lol now the real story, behind the hystronics....

Rising opioid overdose deaths are a public health crisis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), from May 2020 - April 2021, deaths due to accidental overdose surpassed 100,000 for the first time on record. Sixty-four percent of those deaths were attributed to synthetic opioids, which includes illicitly manufactured fentanyl.

Illicitly manufactured fentanyl often comes in the form of pills that closely resemble prescription oxycodone or benzodiazepines such as Xanax. In Oregon, the number of individuals who died from an unintentional fentanyl overdose more than tripled from 2020 to 2022, for a total of 839 fentany lrelated overdose deaths in 2022.

Unfortunately, this trend is expected to continue, as Oregon has continued to see an increase in accidental overdose deaths due to fentanyl.The Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) reported seizing more than 62 million dosage units of fentanyl in 2023, compared to less than 125,000 fentanyl dosage units seized in 2019.

 

[DeluxAuto]

The whole west coast is becoming the new rust belt, plus there's increasing drought to make it less habitable.

Yes, it really looks like they are suffering a drought there.

https://ggweather.com/seasonal_rain.htm

The 120%-200+% above average is a sure sign of a desert wasteland.

Fuckssake.

 

[Chernosoth]

Is anyone even considering the consequences of what to do with all the new addicts of hard drugs as a result of this social experiment?

Maybe that is the plan, a population reduction for a failing economy, desertification, and housing loss.

 

[MajorRewrite]

Maybe that is the plan, a population reduction for a failing economy, desertification, and housing loss.

Is your doomsaying twaddle a bit, or are you serious?

 

[Rightguide]

Is anyone even considering the consequences of what to do with all the new addicts of hard drugs as a result of this social experiment?

Once the laws are repealed every one of those addicts will be a criminal. Yet one could argue that the State actually created them in order to be able to punish them later because almost anyone could see what the inevitable result of the decriminalization laws would be.

Kind of like how "defund the police" has now led to some cities/states thinking of using the National Guard as police. A sort of undeclared martial law as a direct result of getting rid of/reducing law enforcement.

In fact, one could almost see how the entire thing is planned out - liberalize what is now criminal so that an eventual crackdown against the people can begin. Perhaps the chaos was intentionally created just so that the people will throw away their rights to quell what they voted to establish.

It's a theory.

To insure the economic future of the criminal justice revolving door.

 

[TastySuckToy]

"HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's New World Order will arise."

Not surpising that leftist/democrat goals align with that of fictional super villians .

 

[ll74]

That's a dumb take

 

[Rightguide]

"HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's New World Order will arise."

Not surpising that leftist/democrat goals align with that of fictional super villians .

They have truly morphed into a modern totalitarian evolution of George Orwell's "Big Brother" of Oceania.

 

[ll74]

They have truly morphed into a modern totalitarian evolution of George Orwell's "Big Brother" of Oceania.

The law literally reduces legal action of the government against citizens.

 

[Rightguide]

My comments and those I was replying to were aimed at Democrats writ large.

 

[ll74]

My comments and those I was replying to were aimed at Democrats writ large.

Yes, I'm aware you conflate shit in response to your delusions.