Both my Democratic opponent and I are supporters of Measure 110, and I would go further to suggest drug legalization because decriminalization retains all the problems of the black market and lack of liability in the supply chain -after all, I am running as a Libertarian.
Living in Oregon before and after 110, my observation was the problems with fentanyl started before 110, which became the whipping boy for the culmination of years of failed Democratic Party policy and both the state and local law enforcement made every attempt to sabotage the measure. Worse, the legislature should have referred HB 4002 to the voters instead of overruling their initiative. Giving addicts criminal records helps nobody, and the use of, say, anabolic steroids, is a victimless crime.
Dealing with the social costs of drug addiction is the responsibility of counties and cities, not the state, and a legislator’s job is ensuring county commissioners have the tools and laws they need to confront the problem. Centralized grantmaking by the Oregon Health Authority is not good policy. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result - and that's what "public health" authorities do. In fact, they're as dependable to get their grantmaking fix as heroin addicts - throw more money at the Oregon Health Authority and they'll continue to fund the same ineffective programs rooted in their ideology. The corrupt bureaucrats at the OHA are not in the business of putting themselves out of business.
The reality is we have laws on our books allowing for mental health holds for those who are a danger to themselves – something self-evident if an overdose presents to an ER. I pass by addicts in Old Town daily who clearly meet mental hold criteria, but our local law enforcement does nothing. ER’s act like revolving doors to robo-bill Medicaid and miss the opportunity to create a discharge and stabilization plan. Laws about public use and intoxication also give law enforcement the tools they need to control the public blight of drug use. The problem is lack of enforcement. If we need better laws, I’ll vote for them.c
Last year, I attended the arraignment of Kevin Dahlgren, critic of then Multnomah chair, the corrupt Deborah Kafhoury, and it was a political prosecution with no basis in fact on an investigation that began the day after he went on television as the City of Gresham's homeless services czar criticizing the county. He has new ideas and direct experience with what works - we should listen to him, not the OHA's ideologues.
I have a special ire for syringe exchanges, and this is why people who say we should treat addiction as a "public health" problem miss the point that there is a problem in public health right now due to its narrow-minded focus on infectious disease. The concept of syringe exchanges came out of a 1986 CDC pamphlet called “Confronting AIDS” backed by no data. When well-designed studies were completed in the late 90’s, they found syringe exchanges were associated with a 22.5 times greater chance of becoming HIV positive and 2-3 times chance of becoming positive for chronic viral hepatitis. In other words, syringe exchanges don’t work.
Worse, they are proven to induce greater drug use and contribute to public blight such as syringe litter. Unfortunately, public health is ideology and dogma driven, not evidence-based. I a few years ago, I witnessed nuns in San Francisco running a syringe exchange dumping their syringes in a neighborhood targeted for redevelopment - the reason was if they didn't hand out enough syringes, their public health grants would decrease.
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