Erik Loomis thinks it's just swell that Oregon is decriminalizing ALL drugs for recreational use. Certainly the move from an incarceration model to a treatment model is laudable. This bill could help thousands of people get off drugs.
However.
While people who are desperate to escape addiction might make good use of this, there will be others for whom no consequence will means no consequence. Will Oregon see people move there specifically to use?
The human wreckage of the Tenderloin in San Francisco needs to be taken seriously as a warning for well-intentioned efforts to remove penalties from certain crimes and behaviors. I hope it works and leads other states to follow suit. I worry that for two people who escape addiction there will be another for whom Oregon is a place to stay fucked up and panhandle. And then people get sick of it and vote in fascists from Eastern Oregon and they defund the treatment aspect.
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