The War on Drugs is touring again! No, not the band (although maybe they are; we haven’t checked the Bumbershoot lineup), but the policy. Oregon’s voter-approved experiment with decriminalizing hard drugs has largely been gutted without voter sanction, although we haven’t noticed any Bring Back Meth March parading in the Portland streets. First, lawmakers said people caught with drugs could choose between jail and treatment. Now, as first reported Nov. 25 on wweek.com, Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez says people who don’t complete treatment get jail. It was only a matter of time: The county’s drug-crime deflection program, intended to “deflect” people away from incarceration and into rehab, has been pilloried from all corners for its paltry results. Here’s what our readers had to say:
Hazel M. Wheeler, via wweek.com: “I’m not a big fan of Vasquez, yet it’s been very clear that keeping ‘diversion’ as it has been in the last year isn’t working. In the state of Oregon, those with traffic violations who qualify for diversion and do not fully complete it end up with a criminal conviction and penalties. Something has to give; giving an offender what amounts to a taxi ride and warm lobby on our dime isn’t effective. If people choose to leave the facility before intake, they are making a choice not to get help.
“Our neighborhoods and quality of life can’t keep getting pushed back further because some people refuse to accept help. I do not think jail is the only correct conclusion, but allowing people to keep going back to their dealers without so much as any length of supervision is futile.”…