Oregon is now the first state in the nation to decriminalize hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine—and other cities and states are closely following what happens to see if it could become a model to fight drug addiction. Public health officials in Philadelphia, for example, say they want to assess whether the measure eventually has an impact on drug overdose and accessing treatment. The Oregon plan calls for decriminalizing possession of small amounts of hard drugs and establishing a robust referral-and-treatment infrastructure making it easier to receive drug treatment services. The model, however, makes treatment entirely voluntary, which lets substance users avoid engagement with treatment.
Meanwhile, drug overdose deaths are surging in San Diego, as drug cartels ramp up sales of the powerful synthetic opioid, fentanyl, and substance users face growing isolation, fear and anxiety due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the summer the city experienced an average three overdose deaths a day, in part because many users are oftentimes unable to identify what they are consuming or its strength, with fentanyl mixed in with meth, cocaine, heroin and counterfeit Xanax.
And finally, drug overdose deaths are also spiking in Scotland, prompting one “man with a van” to start his own mobile safe injection site, in order to provide substance users with clean syringes and overdose reversal drugs. Such sites are illegal in the U.K., as they are in the United States, and remain controversial as they focus on harm reduction rather than helping addicts obtain life-changing treatment.