Mr. Kellen Russoniello:

I am the director of public health for the Drug Policy Alliance, DPA. DPA is the leading organisation in the United States working to end the drug war, repair its harms, and build a non-punitive, equitable, and regulated drug market.

DPA authored Oregon’s ballot measure 110 and spearheaded the campaign to ensure its passage in 2020, making Oregon the first state in the United States to decriminalise possession of small amounts of all drugs. We remained deeply involved in the efforts to faithfully implement measure 110 and defend against efforts to return to the failed system of criminalisation. Unfortunately, after an intense disinformation campaign by measure 110 opponents, politicians voted earlier this year to recriminalise possession. Much of what has been reported has been woefully short on the context necessary to understand what truly happened in Oregon. I hope to provide that context and some lessons learned to the esteemed members of this committee.

It is important to recognize that measure 110 achieved its primary goals. Arrests for drug possession plummeted, resulting in thousands fewer Oregonians saddled with criminal records for low-level possession. Reducing arrests is essential to reducing racial disparities, limiting disruptions in people’s lives, and preventing criminal records that serve as lifelong barriers to jobs, housing, and other services. Measure 110 also resulted in significant increases in a variety of health and social services for people who use drugs, including in areas of the state where these were not previously available. Over $300 million was allocated in the first two years of implementation, resulting in dramatic increases in the number of clients accessing services such as health needs screenings, treatment, peer support services, harm reduction, housing, and supported employment. Measure 110 saved an additional $40 million in criminal legal system costs; funds that were then reallocated to expand services further.

External factors severely complicated measure 110 implementation. The Covid-19 pandemic presented a myriad of challenges, including increased isolation and overdose risk, reduced access to services and increased housing insecurity tied to the end of eviction moratoria. Prior to the pandemic, Oregon had one of the country’s highest rates of homelessness. This has unfortunately only grown worse. The pandemic also contributed to a lack of leadership on measure 110 implementation from state actors whose attention was elsewhere. This resulted in a nine-month delay in the bulk of funding for services being released to service providers.

Another confounding factor was the proliferation of fentanyl in the United State’s west coast’s drug supply beginning in 2019. Overdose deaths have dramatically increased in Oregon and across the western United States, primarily due to fentanyl.

Relentless opposition to measure 110 from police agencies - the street level implementers of measure 110 - was severely problematic. Future decriminalisation efforts should carefully consider the role that police play and focus on expanding health-based outreach teams to engage people who use drugs.

Available research contradicts claims that measure 110 caused or contributed to social harms. Peer-reviewed studies have found no association between fatal overdoses and measure 110. Rather, overdose deaths are a national crisis that has acutely impacted the west coast in recent years due primarily to the arrival of fentanyl. Studies have also found no association between crime rates and measure 110. In fact, the overall crime rates appear to have declined in Oregon. While many are validly concerned with public drug use, this is more directly tied to Oregon’s long-time housing crisis, which has only deepened in the past five years.

Unfortunately, politicians chose to blame measure 110 for problems that resulted from decades of failures to resolve larger structural issues. These problems will not improve with a return to criminalising drug possession. Rather, recriminalisation will further overburden an already overtaxed criminal legal system, disrupt people's lives, and fail to connect people with treatment while siphoning resources that could be used to expand services. The effects of recriminalisation will be felt most harshly in black, brown and indigenous communities.

Decriminalisation is an important component of a public health approach to drugs, but it should not act alone. Communities need more humane and affordable housing and shelter. We also need more services like community-led crisis response teams and overdose prevention centres that connect people to care. Measure 110’s partial repeal does not represent a policy failure but a failure of political will. The movement to replace drug criminalisation with care continues in Oregon and in other areas of the United States.

I thank the committee for its time and look forward to questions.