XPost: alt.society.liberalism, or.politics, talk.politics.guns   
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   From: user@o.com   
      
   Tonight, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt testified in   
   favor of Oregon legislators’ latest proposal to recriminalize hard drugs,   
   ending a lengthy public silence on whether he supports rolling back the   
   heart of the 2020 ballot measure that made Oregon the first state in the   
   country to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of heroin, meth   
   and fentanyl.   
      
   “What we have seen over the last few years as fentanyl has hit the West   
   Coast is unacceptable, and we need to take action to help those struggling   
   with addiction,” he said. “We can approach addiction as the health issue   
   it is, while also holding people accountable for how they impact our   
   community.”   
      
   Schmidt won office in 2020 in a landslide on a progressive platform that   
   included the promise of not returning to the “failed ‘war on drugs’”   
   policies of the past. In recent months, he’s pushed an alternative   
   proposal that would keep the core of Measure 110 intact: penalizing the   
   public use of the hard drugs voters decriminalized. When WW asked him   
   earlier this month whether he supported recriminalizing hard drugs, he   
   pointed to his proposed public use ban and declined to answer the   
   question.   
      
   But legislators have stood firm with their intention to restore   
   misdemeanor penalties for possession of such drugs, and Schmidt is now   
   bowing to political reality: Spiking overdoses and the visible impact of   
   addiction on Portland’s streets has made decriminalization unpalatable for   
   many voters. Schmidt faces Nathan Vasquez, a challenger to his right and   
   from within his own office, in the upcoming May election.   
      
   Schmidt’s turnaround is even more striking because it arrives just days   
   after he received a $30,000 contribution, his largest, from the Drug   
   Policy Alliance, the deep-pocketed drug policy reform group that backed   
   Measure 110.   
      
   The bill, as currently proposed, would make possession of small amounts of   
   illicit drugs an “unclassified” misdemeanor, with penalties of up to 180   
   days in jail. That penalty, however, is meant as a last resort,   
   legislators say. Instead, it’s meant to push users into diversion programs   
   and treatment, through which they can avoid charges or expunge their   
   record.   
      
   Still, the law as currently designed will result in 2,200 more convictions   
   per year and disproportionately affect Black Oregonians, according to a   
   state analysis.   
      
   Opponents of the bill say it ignores the fact that the state continues to   
   lack sufficient drug treatment services. “This bill does not change that   
   sad reality,” testified Multnomah County public defender Grant Hartley on   
   Monday.   
      
   https://www.wweek.com/news/2024/02/26/mike-schmidt-endorses-proposal-to-   
   re-criminalize-hard-drugs/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)