Oregon voters earlier this month approved a groundbreaking ballot measure decriminalizing hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine, ending incarceration for low-level possession and also mandating expanding treatment that would be paid for by marijuana tax revenues. Yet as officials prepare to implement this first-in-the-nation initiative in just over two months, the state isn’t prepared to offer treatment to anyone caught in possession of an illegal drug. Oregon lacks enough treatment providers and recovery centers, officials say, especially at a time when drug overdose deaths rose in Oregon 70 percent in April and May, compared to the same months last year, due in part to COVID-19 restrictions that have limited treatment services and the number of inpatient beds.
Meanwhile, an op-ed article in the New York Times observes that both Mexico and the U.S. are finally coming around to ending the war on drugs, considering the Oregon policy shift and fast-moving marijuana legalization in each country. This is the time, the article argues, for a change in drug policy that shifts resources from enforcement to treatment, which is in dire need of improvement (90 percent of Americans with substance use disorders do not receive treatment.)
And finally, a California judge has ruled that officials erred by allowing cannabis billboards along the state’s highways. Such ads were supposed to be banned under the 2016 initiative allowing the sale of recreational marijuana, but the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control overstepped its power by allowing them, the court said.