Oregon’s pioneering drug policy faces mounting political headwinds

Beat Check with The Oregonian

Less than three years ago, Oregon became the first state in the U.S. to decriminalize minor possession of street drugs through an initiative that also promised to expand addiction-treatment services to people experiencing substance use disorder.

Yet voters who overwhelmingly approved Measure 110 are already souring on the law amid a disastrous rollout and an explosion of fentanyl that’s fueled overdose deaths, petty crime and jarring scenes of public drug use in Portland and other cities.

Meanwhile, a coalition of political, civic and business leaders is now seeking to unwind the centerpiece of the law by again treating minor drug possession as a misdemeanor crime.

On the latest Beat Check, I speak with Oregonian/OregonLive reporter Noelle Crombie about the challenges confronting Measure 110 and the efforts by its proponents to protect it.

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