Lane County’s efforts to guide people in drug addiction into recovery stepped up in 2025, even though the county’s deflection program is still relatively new.
Lane County started the program in October 2024. It gives people facing misdemeanor drug possession charges or other low-level charges tied to addiction an opportunity to avoid court if they participate in a recovery program. It’s part of the state’s broader push to combat drug addiction.
Since October 2024, 34 people have graduated from the program, and another 83 are currently in the program, county data show. That’s 117 people in all, slightly more than a third of the 317 people who have participated. About 200 others have been removed from the program, most of them because they made no contact with program workers and couldn’t be reached…