Coming down from the high: How the West regretted its dance with drugs

In early September, Oregon's three-and-a-half-year drug decriminalization experiment ended as some drug abuse consequences were reinstated.

The withdrawal of Ballot Measure 110 reinstated misdemeanor charges for possession and public consumption of small amounts of drugs such as heroin and fentanyl. This comes after Oregon saw a nearly 50% increase in overdose deaths between 2021 and 2023. Violent crime increased by 17% in the state, while the number of homeless increased by 8.5% in 2023.

As neighboring states like California, Colorado and Washington eye the Oregon experiment, are they turning away from similarly progressive crime policies?

Californians want to take action against drugs

California legalized recreational marijuana in 2016. And it remains the only fully decriminalized drug in the state. However, a ballot initiative called Proposition 47 was passed in November 2014, which reduced the charge for using drugs like fentanyl from a felony to a misdemeanor. Nowadays, drug users are often fined, given a court stop, or given a misdemeanor and told to move on. “Diversion programs,” based on a treatment approach rather than an incarceration approach, also form a core part of Proposition 47.

The voter-approved ballot initiative has been implemented over the past decade in San Francisco, which is at the center of the state's drug crisis. Drug use has skyrocketed in the city, where the overdose rate last year was more than double the national average.

“The problem is that about 95% of people who are offered this treatment decline it,” Tom Wolf said Washington investigationr when he commented on the usual police approach of offering drug users treatment rather than prosecuting them or locking them up for more than a few days. Formerly a homeless, recovering heroin addict from San Francisco, Wolf recently founded a drug advocacy group called the Pacific Alliance for Prevention and Recovery.

“Usually they just give you a ticket, then take away your medication and move on,” he said.

Wolf said addicts often refuse treatment because they are afraid of withdrawal symptoms, and “they know that under current laws they will be released from prison in 48 hours.”

Wolf pointed to positive polls on Proposition 36, a tough-on-crime ballot measure that Californians will vote on this fall, as evidence that they are fed up with their state's drug crisis.

“People have realized that a lot of these criminal justice reforms have kind of gone too far and too fast,” he said, adding that there is a “trend” that Californians don’t want to continue on the path Oregon has just taken.

Proposition 36, which is “strongly” supported by Republican Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, would impose criminal charges for possession of certain drugs and for theft under $950 if the offender has two prior drug or theft convictions. However, it offers reduced fees provided treatment continues. Wolf said when drug users fear a possible crime, they are more likely to seek and follow through with treatment if it means they can reduce the charge to a misdemeanor.

Colorado is turning away from escalating progressive drug policies

Colorado became the first state to decriminalize recreational marijuana use in 2014. It is also one of the few states that has decriminalized several psychedelic drugs and magic mushrooms.

The state has been loosening crime policy for years, expelling a significant number of offenders from prison in 2010 and shortening prison sentences. Michael Steinberg, a former top felony prosecutor, praised Colorado courts' “very positive approach” to first-time drug offenders.

“It's not a punishment, it's not a prison, it's not a fine. The goal is to literally fix the problem. And this is tried over and over again, and at some point, you know, the judges are going to raise their hands or the probation officers are going to say, 'We can't move forward because this person isn't taking it seriously,'” he said.

According to a study by the Common Sense Institute, average drug crimes among men fell by more than 32% between 2010 and 2021. Between 2010 and 2022, the number of people in prison fell by 28.4%.

The Progressive Harm Reduction Action Center now operates at least 20 centers around the state, distributing “safer snuff” supplies, clean syringes and information about the safest way to use drugs.

Drug problems rocked the state as softer policies increased. More than one in 10 Coloradans had a substance use disorder in 2021, one of the most common in the country. Opioid overdose deaths increased 54% in 2020 compared to the previous year. The crime rate increased by 32% from 2010 to 2022.

One of the country's leading drug policy experts said: Washington Examiner He feared that the “empowerment” of the state would fuel the crisis.

“The trend we're seeing right now is a kind of empowerment in the West of drug use and addiction under the guise of compassion or help for addicted people,” said Luke Niforatos, executive vice president of Smart Approaches Marijuana.

Niforatos is also concerned that the lenient drug policy has led to gigantic money-making schemes. He said that after the state legalized marijuana, key stakeholders realized “they could create an industry and make a lot of money getting people addicted to more drugs.”

Colorado's state government and some of its local governments will receive more than $750 million in opioid arbitration payments over the next 15 years from companies like Walgreens, Johnson & Johnson and CVS.

“The people who want to make money from legalization have hijacked harm reduction,” he said. “It got more people hooked, and now there are people trying to make money from it.”

There are signs that the state is deviating from progressive policies.

Niforatos is encouraged that Denver City Mayor Mike Johnston has rejected injection sites. He also sees signs that Johnston has met with activists who favor tougher drug measures as a sign that the mayor is taking a more “even-handed” approach than progressives on the City Council.

Colorado lawmakers have also twice blocked legislation authorizing local governments to authorize overdose prevention centers or injection sites. The state parliament last rejected such a bill at the beginning of the year.

“Everyone in the country looks at Oregon as a cautionary tale that normalizing drugs could be a disaster,” Niforatos said.

Washington's drug crisis: “The general public sees this and is not happy”

Washington state passed a law in May 2023 making drug possession a gross misdemeanor. Individuals found with illegal substances typically receive a maximum prison sentence of 364 days and a maximum fine of $5,000.

In reality, the consequences of what people are facing vary across states. Individual counties have freedom to choose which policies they want to prioritize and retain the ability to divert funding from police departments, limiting their ability to enforce the law.

“We've seen cities and certain counties, particularly King County, adopting these more liberal or progressive approaches to regulating hard drug use,” said Republican Sen. John Braun.

Another tactic the state is using to crack down on drug users reflects California's Proposition 36 initiative. The law establishes a pretrial “diversion program” for people charged with simple possession. If the offender agrees to participate in a treatment program, the state dismisses the charges.

Before last May, Braun said, “Drugs had essentially been legalized for over two years.”

Less than four years ago, the possession and use of banned drugs was considered a criminal offense. That all changed when the state Supreme Court ruled in 2021 that the law was unconstitutional.

Following the court State v. Blake With this ruling, the Washington legislature passed a temporary law that made drug possession a simple misdemeanor. Police had to refer people to police twice before being allowed to make an arrest.

Drug problems rivaled Oregon's and were “in some cases worse,” the senator said.

A Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention report released this year found that Oregon and Washington experienced the largest percentage increase in overdose deaths nationwide, with a 41% increase in overdose deaths between September 2022 and September 2023. Washington recorded also a 51% increase in fatal fentanyl overdoses in 2023.

King's County, which Braun said has “adopted these more liberal or progressive approaches to hard drug use,” has been a hot spot for Washinton's drug crisis. Between 2020 and 2023, fentanyl-related drug deaths increased more than fourfold.

“On the one hand, we have extremely worthwhile drugs that are widely available. And on the other hand, little to no pressure to stop using,” said Stanford psychology professor Keith Humphreys, who advised the Obama White House on drug policy Seattle Times in 2022. “Under these conditions, we should expect to see exactly what Oregon is experiencing: extensive drug use, extensive addiction and little treatment seeking.”

The same year that Washington reduced consequences for drug possession, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health rated the state as the third-worst state in the country for illicit drug use disorders.

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After rolling back some progressive measures, Braun admits that “there is still a very active and influential group here in Washington that still has a hard time legalizing drugs.” But he doesn't think they'll make much progress in the near future.

“We continue to have an alarming and tragic number of overdose deaths in our state,” he said. “I think the general public sees this and is not happy about it.”