In the first week of Oregon's short legislative session, drug policy, specifically measure 110, is a hot button issue. Measure 110 is Oregon's Drug Decriminalization Measure, which has been controversial. While proponents of changes to the law say that the need to respond to outrage about an increase in public drug use, critics argue that recriminalizing drug possession would disrupt efforts to address drug addiction without allowing the health infrastructure to recover.
In his article titled "Did Measure 110 cause Oregon’s opioid crisis? Not so fast, research shows" Street Roots reporter Jeremiah Hayden explains that the arrival of COVID-19, fentanyl and rising housing costs are major factors in the rise in overdoses, public drug use and over policing.
KBOO's Althea Billings spoke to Hayden about the debates around Measure 110, what the research says about it's affects and the causes of the opioid crisis in Oregon.