Oregon law enforcement agencies are writing far fewer citations for drug possession under Measure 110 relative to the number of people arrested for simple drug possession before the law took effect, a KATU News Investigation has found.
Voters approved Measure 110 in November 2020; the landmark legislation made Oregon the first state in the country to decriminalize possession of small amounts of hard drugs and instead allowed police to write low-level tickets for possession. The tickets could be waived if the recipient called a hotline and got a health assessment.
However, state court shows agencies are writing very few tickets, leading to concern that Measure 110 - as implemented - is leading to very little intervention for drug use.
“In your mind, do the citations do enough to intervene in drug use,” KATU asked Mike Marshall, the executive director of Oregon Recovers, an advocacy group for people in recovery.
Well, it's not a matter of my opinion. It's a matter of fact. And the fact is no. Cops are not writing the citations," said Marshall.
“Prior to Measure 110, we didn't really have a good form of intervention. The criminal justice system was the only form of intervention, which is really not a good thing. However, at least it was something. Now, that's gone," Marshall said.
Through December 2022, law enforcement statewide wrote 3,768 tickets under Measure 110.
In southern Oregon, law enforcement agencies in Josephine, Jackson, and Douglas Counties wrote a combined 1,477 Class-E citations under Measure 110. However, in Multnomah, Clackamas, and Washington Counties – an area with nearly 4.5 times the population – law enforcement wrote a combined 473 citations.
“When you don't have an instrument by which to detain people, when the governmental interest in the work goes down, when you have a lot of questions about police use of force and how you're going to navigate the work that you're doing, officers are going to focus on the things they can be successful at,” said Aaron Schmautz, the president of the Portland Police Association.
"There's a lack of a clear mandate. So, officers aren't going to pursue work that they don't think they can be successful at," Schmautz continued.
Schmautz said officers instead spend their time investigating more serious crimes and responding to 911 calls.
When you have all these other huge violence issues in the community and everything else, [writing the tickets] just becomes less of a priority,” Schmautz said.
The original backers of Measure 110 are split on law enforcement’s role in post-Measure 110 Oregon.
Haven Wheelock runs the Drug Users Health Services Program at Outside In. She was also one of the chief petitioners to get 110 on the ballot.
“Should [police] prioritize those citations if it's one way people could be connected to services?” KATU asked.
“I don't believe people need punishment, even in the form of a ticket, to get care,” Wheelock said. “I would much prefer them, like have that one-on-one interaction with an addiction professional than a law enforcement agent.”
However, another co-petitioner, Anthony Johnson, said police should be doing more.
“They should definitely utilize the citations and enforce the law as it is, particularly if people are selling in public and openly violating the law. The voters did not legalize all drugs. Measure 110 did not legalize all drugs, certainly didn't want to legalize drugs in public places,” Johnson said.
Records KATU obtained from the Criminal Justice Commission in our investigation show thousands fewer Oregonians are being jailed for possessing drugs.
Between February 2018 and July 2019 – police arrested just over 21,700 people statewide for simple drug possession. The number dropped to roughly 3,800 arrests in the same 18-month period after Measure 110 took effect.
“Does it surprise you that so few citations have been written compared to the number of people arrested before Measure 110?” KATU asked Schmautz.
“Not at all,” Schmautz said. “Knowing that there really is nothing at the end of that rope makes it very difficult for law enforcement to participate in the program.”
The lack of intervention since Measure 110 took effect worries Tony Vezina, the executive director of 4-D Recovery.
Vezina is in recovery himself; his organization is a Measure 110 grantee and gets funding to provide peer support, housing, and harm reduction services. He said his organization has used that funding to serve over 230 clients.
However, the perceived lack of intervention concerns him.
“We need to have a way to intervene on people and help them, especially those people who are the most addicted; their brain has been hijacked, and they're unable to stop using. They need help that’s not super penal, but that can intervene and help them,” Vezina said.
We can't just let people just flail out of control until they overdose or lose everything. We have to have a way to intervene.
“Is that happening right now?” KATU asked.
“I mean, yeah, in a lot of ways, yeah. We don't have a system that can meet the demand,” Vezina said.
Many critics see the arrest and citation data and say there’s no longer any stick in addressing Oregon’s drug use and addiction crisis.
“The environment that we've created is dangerous; it's uncontrolled. It's allowed people who prey on people who have addiction, prey on people who might not have control over their lives and need money from different ways. It just gives victims a predator who can come and take advantage of them,” Schmautz said.
Measure 110 advocates disagree and say the law is blamed on problems that started bubbling up in 2020 – before voters approved Measure 110. They also blame the negative public perception on the well-publicized delay in getting funding out to organizations, which stymied efforts to expand Oregon’s recovery services.
“There are people that want to use Measure 110 as a scapegoat, say, ‘oh, there's nothing we can do about it,’ but these crimes associated around dealing drugs in public, other crimes around stealing, those things remain illegal, and we need to enforce those laws to ensure that Measure 110 is carried out to the voters’ intent,” Johnson said.
“Supporters of Measure 110 will say, ‘dealing is still illegal. Law enforcement should intervene in that.’ Should police intervene in dealing at that level?" KATU asked Schmautz.
“Proving that somebody is actually dealing drugs involves interdiction; it involves doing undercover work or follow up work. That kind of work requires support, and the law itself chilled that work,” Schmautz said, pointing to provisions in Measure 110 that further changed the misdemeanor and felony levels for possession amounts. “It is always frustrating to me when people do something, the outcome is bad, and they turn her back around and say to law enforcement, ‘well, you're just not doing your job.’ We work within the systems that are created for us.”
Back at Wheelock’s facility, they focus on harm reduction, essentially making drug use safer with things like needle exchanges and handing out Narcan – an overdose reversal drug. Wheelock said people should get away from the carrot-and-stick analogy for drug use.
The intervention is where most people veer; many people in law enforcement believe they should still be able to arrest people. Some advocates, like Vezina and Marshall, think there should be a non-law enforcement intervention with some teeth. Wheelock believes people should stop using or get help when they’re ready.
“For me it has always been about how do we reframe how we think about drug use, how we think about addiction, to really move away from that punishment model that is so ingrained in how our society thinks about drugs, and how do we move it in really help shift it into that healthcare world,” Wheelock said.
Whether her work continues as is, or Oregon lawmakers bring the state closer to pre-Measure 110 days, will be a topic of debate this year in Salem.