Democrats in Oregon have completed a massive flip-flop on drugs. Or a “180.” A U-turn. Or an “Oops, that didn’t go so well.”
It’s the state’s earlier campaign to decriminalize hard drugs, which now has come full circle with the governor signing legislation that recriminalizes hard drugs.
A report from Fox News documents Gov. Tina Kotek, a far-left Democrat, this week signed a law that reverses Measure 110, a 2020 law that decriminalized most illegal possession of all sorts of drugs.
While a few more than half of Oregon voters approved the Democrat-promoted idea back then, about the same number now have rejected the law change, in light of skyrocketing drug overdose deaths across the state and nation.
The new statute makes the “personal use” or possession of drugs a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail.
The Fox report noted the change also authorizes police to confiscate drugs and restrict their use on public properties. And it brings forward an alternative to criminal penalties.
Oregon House Republican Leader Jeff Helfrich said in the report the change is a first step toward addressing the state’s drug crisis. He noted, “Republicans stood united and forced Democrats to do what Oregonians demanded: recriminalize drugs.”
The reversal was triggered by ineffectual processes to deliver tax money to addiction services, the COVID-19 pandemic and the fentanyl crisis that exploded on America’s borders under Joe Biden’s open door policies.
The state Senate adopted the repudiation of drug legalization 21-9 and the House passed it 51-7.
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