Mr. Kellen Russoniello:

That is a great question. Before measure 110 passed, Oregon ranked pretty much at the bottom of the United States in terms of access to substance use disorder treatment and mental health services. The only place to go was up after measure 110. In the United States generally, harm reduction does not have very sustainable sources of funding. Generally it is through grants from a variety of sources, and harm reduction service providers are left to their own devices to make sure they make ends meet. Measure 110 represented a transformative shift in how harm reduction was funded in the state of Oregon because it provided the first ongoing state funding for harm reduction and required that harm reduction services be provided in each county through the mechanisms established by measure 110.

Unfortunately we do not really have a sense overall of how the behavioural healthcare system has transformed since measure 110. Data systems are not what we would like them to be and there has not been enough time for that analysis yet. We do know that measure 110 has increased the number of people accessing services in the categories of services it is funding. For example, health needs screenings have increased by 298%; people accessing substance use disorder treatment have increased by 143%; and there have been nearly 300% increases in the number of people accessing housing services and supported employment funded by measure 110. We know these services are expanding what was available and making it available in a more systematic way rather than on an ad hoc basis and in response to grants.

In relation to the overall behavioural healthcare system and how that plays with Medicaid and those types of things, it is probably going to take some time to really figure that out. We do know that the funding and health services aspects of measure 110 were very popular. Even with the recent roll-back of decriminalisation, the legislature did not touch the health services provision because they recognised that they are having important impacts on people's lives.