Oregon decriminalized drugs 2 years ago. What can B.C. learn from its rocky start?

Police have spotted Charles Laprain with powdered fentanyl in a parking lot in Portland, Oregon. Two years ago that would have been a crime. 

Instead, Portland police officer David Baer writes him a $100 US ticket, which could be waived if Laprain calls the recovery hotline on the back of the citation. 

 Which, he admits, he's 50/50 on doing. 

"It gives a person more of a chance to at least get clean," he said on the late January afternoon. "It don't do any good when people are locked up."

Interactions like this happen everyday for Baer since Oregon brought in Measure 110, which decriminalized possession of small amounts of all hard drugs in the state in February 2021.

He was surprised to find out British Columbia also recently moved to eliminate criminal penalties for personal possession, and says there could be unforeseen challenges.

"You're going to see an increase in public drug use," Baer said. 

Oregon, for instance, saw a 52 percent rise in opioid deaths in the first year of its new measure, and has struggled to get enough access to treatment in place — a challenge B.C. already faces. 

According to an audit of the initiative by Oregon's Secretary of State's office published last month, it's "too early to tell" how this health-based approach to drug use is working in Oregon.

Measure 110, which was voted for by 58 per cent of Oregonians in 2020, means drug use is still illegal in public but possession is not.

Instead of being treated as criminals, users are directed by information on the back of citations into treatment options, which are funded using over $135 million of redirected tax revenue from the state's legalized cannabis sales.

But as the state's found out, not many people are calling to get help. By the June last year, the hotline, which is supposed to connect drug users to services, received just 119 calls at a cost of over $9,200 per call, according to the audit. 

Delays in funding treatment services, confusion around program governance and trying to piece together a system that a drug user can easily access have also been significant barriers, according to the report. 

They're the kinds of challenges British Columbia, which became the first jurisdiction in Canada to decriminalize 2.5 grams or less of opioids, cocaine, meth and ecstasy in January, could learn from, says Tera Hurst from Oregon's Health Justice Recovery Initiative, an advocacy coalition which campaigned for Measure 110.