“Oregon’s Drug Decriminalization Debacle”

The title of this post is the title of this new article now available via SSRN and authored by Paul Larkin.  Here is its abstract:

The failure of the Oregon Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act of 2020 to achieve its objectives teaches us a host of lessons about the prospects of any new law or policy to achieve its stated goals.  Measure 110 failed for a number of reasons, including that its proponents held unrealistic opinions about the ability of a new law to solve an old, chronic problem and failed to consider, or greatly misjudged, the reasons why a new approach to an old problem could become law without the support of an educated majority of the electorate.  The proponents of Measure 110 thought that they had a perfect solution to an intractable problem.  They abandoned a strategy that, while far short of perfect, at least offered some people an opportunity to turn their lives around, and they did not consider middle-ground alternatives, involving some degree of coercion, that might have been more successful, albeit only partial, solutions for treating the abuse of dangerous drugs.  The reform they adopted worsened matters considerably, but Oregon deserves kudos for realizing that its experiment failed and for trying to remedy its mistake with a different approach.  Hopefully, others will learn from what Oregon’s decriminalization strategy led to and will not have to suffer through the consequences of the mistakes that Oregon made.