Huumeiden käytön dekriminalisointi sai kaupungin romahtamaan Yhdysvalloissa

”Miksi muuten dekriminalisaatiolla olisi vain hyvin pieni osuus ongelmista Portlandin kohdalla? Jutun perusteella vaikuttaa, että paikalliset itse pitävät kyseistä lakia epäonnistuneena.”
USA:n järjestelmä on täysin rikki, ei siellä ole tuki minkäänlaisia tukiverkkoja ole ollut kodittomille, tai addikteille, moni joutuu kadulle syystä sun toisesta (Oregonissa myös hurja asuntopula, mistä linkissä alempana) ja sieltä ei sitten helposti takaisin noustakaan, sitten helposti päihteistä tulee ainoa tapa miten jaksaa päivästä toiseen, turruttamalla pää sekaisin.

”“Escalation of housing values and rising rents is what causes homelessness.” According to state analysts, Oregon’s current housing supply is short roughly 140,000 homes to meet the demands of its population size. This places the state fourth in the country in terms of under-producing housing.”
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/10/09/oregon-homelessness-history-background-housing-solutions/

Oregonin huumeongelmasta:
”For years, Oregonians have reported some of the highest rates of substance use disorder in the nation on federal surveys. The opioid crisis is nearly three decades old and use of methamphetamine, long Oregon’s deadliest drug, has not abated. At the same time, the state consistently has among the lowest treatment availability in the country, according to surveys conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Fentanyl — a cheap, incredibly addictive synthetic opioid — has made all of those problems much worse.
More Oregonians are dying from drug overdoses than ever before. On average, three people die every day from an unintended drug overdose, according to the Oregon Health Authority.
“It’s crazy out there,” said Rick Treleaven, the chief executive officer at BestCare Treatment Services, a recovery services provider based in Central Oregon. “This is a very dangerous time to be a drug addict in Oregon.”
That could be said about most states right now. Oregon was not even among the states with the highest rate of overdose deaths in 2021, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the size of the problem here has multiplied well beyond the state’s ability to manage it. And the explosion of fentanyl into communities across the state has pushed an already unstable, understaffed treatment system, drained by the pandemic, to a breaking point.”
https://www.opb.org/article/2023/05/30/oregon-worsening-drug-crisis-fentanyl-overdoses/

Dekriminalisaatiosta:
”SIMON: What was the argument that people made for tearing down the old system and trying to start something new?
LEVINSON: Well, nationally, we have a very punitive approach to drug addiction. You know, we arrest people. We charge them with crimes. We fine them, incarcerate them. And it might get people off the street or out of sight for a bit, but in terms of addressing addiction, it is quite harmful and can actually make recovery much more difficult. Jail is incredibly disruptive, you know, even if it’s just a few weeks. People lose jobs. They lose housing. Bills can pile up. And then once you’re out, parole is very difficult and cumbersome and expensive.
So the idea behind decriminalization is to replace jail and criminal charges with addiction services. It steers most of the state’s cannabis tax revenue toward service providers around the state. To date, that totals more than $200 million that’s been paid out. And earlier this year, the Oregon Health Authority said that already, in the early stages of the program, tens of thousands of people had already received services.
SIMON: At the same time, there’s been a lot of criticism and negative public reaction. Is it accurate to say, as many people do, that it is a failed experiment?
LEVINSON: You know, Oregon still has some of the highest rates of substance use disorder in the country. Recent polling in the state shows widespread dissatisfaction with the law. But I think it’s too soon to say that this is a failed policy, right? Oregon unraveled almost a half-century of drug policy in 13 weeks. It passed in November 2020, took effect February 1, 2021. That is very fast. It’s so fast that service providers say the systems meant to replace arrest and jail were nowhere near ready to assume all of this increased responsibility. This is just a massive system that needs to be stood up. I spoke to Lisa Weigum, who – she oversees Measure 110 programs for a service provider in Oregon, and she said that this condensed timeline meant they were sunk before they even began.
LISA WEIGUM: And that has nothing to do with any of the agencies. It has nothing to do with the concept behind Measure 110. We don’t have the time.
LEVINSON: Critics say it is a fundamentally flawed policy. Republicans in the state have been calling for its repeal for a while. They blame the law for dramatic increase in overdose deaths and drug use. They say that Oregon has become a destination for drug users – not a lot of evidence for some of that. But cities all along the West Coast are dealing with similar problems, oftentimes worse than in Oregon. Decriminalization also happened right as fentanyl started to surge. So Oregon dismantled the system that it did have just as it faced this desperate need for addiction services. So, you know, whatever you think of the policy itself, it’s been a victim of tragic timing and poor planning.
SIMON: You spoke to a number of drug users and people in recovery. What did they tell you about what they think works and what doesn’t work to keep people in recovery and away from drugs?
LEVINSON: Yeah. I spoke to several people who were receiving addiction services either because they were forced into it through parole and probation or because they had chosen to go into recovery for personal reasons. But none of them said that the threat of jail was a factor in their decision to quit using. I spoke to Michael Hamilton the day he was released from jail on a probation violation, and he’d been trying to quit opioids basically since he broke his foot and was prescribed OxyContin. He pointed to a different motivation for staying off of drugs than jail.”
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/02/1197419141/two-years-ago-oregon-changed-its-approach-to-drug-addiction-the-results-are-in