The Legislature is poised to reimpose a criminal penalty for possession of small amounts of specified drugs that Oregon voters removed by approving a ballot measure in 2020.
A joint House-Senate committee voted 10-2 on Tuesday night, Feb. 27, to advance House Bill 4002 to a vote of the full House, likely in a day or two. If passed there, the Senate would face an up-or-down vote.
The 140-page bill goes far beyond a partial repeal of Measure 110, which substituted citations and a $100 fine, the latter subject to waiver if someone agreed to a drug evaluation.
It also removes barriers to insurance coverage and medication-assisted treatment, and requires a study by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission of how all the changes affect people of color and others.
“We started this process with the realization that what is happening right now in our communities isn’t acceptable,” said Rep. Jason Kropf, a Democrat from Bend and a former prosecutor who co-led the committee. “I also started this process with the belief that we could do better than how we used to treat the possession of drugs in 2019.”
Lawmakers have not come up with a price tag for additional spending to carry out its provisions. The money can be put into the session-ending budget reconciliation measure.
“I’ll be honest: I don’t think anybody is going to be super happy voting for this bill,” said Sen. Elizabeth Steiner, a Democrat from Portland, a member of the joint committee and Senate co-leader of the Legislature’s budget committee.
Treatment advocates were unhappy. They said the bill would return Oregon to the years of the “war on drugs” that put enforcement over treatment and prevention.
Rep. Tawna Sanchez, also a Democrat from Portland, member of the committee and House budget co-leader, said Oregon is paying the price for inadequate spending on treatment.
The revised bill satisfied some major groups — League of Oregon Cities, Association of Oregon Counties, Oregon State Sheriffs Association, Oregon District Attorneys Association and Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs. A coalition backed by business interests had geared up for a ballot initiative of its own in the Nov. 5 general election to reimpose a stricter criminal penalty if legislators did not.
The proposed penalty is a maximum six months in jail — the original legislative proposal was for 30 days, the local government and law enforcement advocates sought one year — but unlike the other misdemeanors in state law, there is no fine. A judge would offer the defendant the option of “deflection,” similar in concept to diversion for drunken-driver suspects although there are technical differences, and could not resort to a jail sentence first. District attorneys still would have a say in who would get the option, which a defendant would have to complete before a final judgment is entered.
The small amounts decriminalized under Measure 110 were specified quantities of cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine and MDMA, known as Ecstasy. Marijuana is not affected; Oregon voters legalized adult use of marijuana in a 2014 ballot measure.
The two dissenters on the committee vote were Democrats.
Rep. Andrea Valderrama of Portland said the effects will be felt most by people of color.
“We heard from experts around the country and here in Oregon sharing information about the disproportionately high rates of potentially fatal overdoses, post-incarceration difficulties of securing housing and jobs, and an overall concern about the disproportionate impacts on Black and Brown communities with an approach that focuses on criminal justice,” she said.
Sen. Floyd Prozanski of Eugene is a former deputy district attorney and a contract prosecutor for several cities. He said Oregon has 2,800 criminal defendants currently without legal representation because of a severe shortage of public defenders — and more than 170 are in jail.
“We are getting ready to put in what testimony showed to be 2,000 to 4,000 on top of the problem we have not addressed,” he said. “I cannot see how we are moving forward when we do not have supports in place.”
Republicans, who are the minority party in both chambers, sought unsuccessfully to force a vote on their proposal to refer a repeal measure to voters. Earlier Tuesday, with votes from a few Democrats in potentially vulnerable districts, Republicans mustered 30 votes to withdraw their bill from the joint committee for immediate consideration. But they needed a majority of the full House at 31, and when a Republican finally cast her vote, a Democrat switched his and the motion failed.
Rep. Kevin Mannix, R-Salem, said he would have liked lawmakers to go further and institute civil commitment to compel someone to enter treatment.
“These things are not in front of us and not part of this package,” he said. “But what is left of this package does move us a step in the right direction. So I will support it.”
Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp of Bend had called for legislative action even as he supported the GOP effort to refer a repeal measure, which would have been delayed until the general election.
“Oregonians are the winners, because they want a change in Measure 110,” he said. “I think it is incumbent upon the Legislature to provide that change to give the policy a chance to actually work.”
Pwong@pamplinmedia.com
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