Heroin. Cocaine. Meth. 

     Oregon has become the first state to decriminalize small amounts of hard drugs in a 59-41 percent vote as of early as Wednesday, Nov. 4 according to the Associated Press.  

     This new law will be called “The Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act” which will “transition Oregon’s punitive, criminal approach to a humane, cost-effective, health approach.” The theory behind this act is that” people who are suffering from addiction are more effectively treated with health care services than with criminal punishments.” 

     The health care approach includes “a health assessment to figure out the needs of people who are suffering from addiction and it includes connecting them to the services they need.”       

      Oregon has decided to offer them addiction services funded by marijuana tax revenue, which is “more than $100 million a year in the state” rather than treating them as criminals. Giving these people treatment instead of treating them as criminals will allow them to get the help that they may not get when they are on their own. Locking someone up who has an addiction problem will not make them better, it will just push them down farther in their life.

     Oregon has set limits on how much of these hard-core drugs you can have in possession, it can only be small amounts. For example, heroin or MDMA must be less than a gram, cocaine or methamphetamine must be two grams or less, psilocybin mushrooms must be 12 grams or less, and as for LSD, oxycodone, or methadone, it must be 40 doses or less.  

     Criminal penalties for possession of these amounts are replaced with a fine of up to $100 which can be waived once evaluated at the Addiction Recovery Centers. As for things regarding manufacturing drugs, selling drugs, and driving under the influence, these are still criminal offenses and will still be criminalized as normal. The decriminalization and health program is only if you have possession of the substance.  

     According to the Associated Press, more than 100 organizations endorsed the measure, including the Oregon Chapter of the American College of Physicians, Oregon Nurses Association, Oregon School Psychologists Association, Oregon Academy of Family Physicians, the ACLU, and others.    

      They added there was also a fair amount of opposition to the measure, with two dozen district attorneys in the state saying the measure “recklessly decriminalizes possession of the most dangerous types of drugs (and) will lead to an increase in acceptability of dangerous drugs.” 

     Following somewhat of Oregon’s lead, Michigan City decriminalizes magic mushrooms and other psychedelic plants. Multiple countries in Europe, including Portugal, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, have decriminalized hard drugs “without rampant negative effects.” Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001, which did not lead to an increase in drug use but did “result in a dramatic reduction of pathologies associated with drug use, such as sexually transmitted diseases and overdose deaths” according to a 2009 Cato Institute study. Another 2015 European Drug Report also found that Portugal’s drug overdose death rate is five times lower than the European Union average.