Oregon lawmakers took big steps Thursday, Feb. 29, toward final approval of bills advancing the session’s major priorities of housing production and addiction treatment.
The House passed legislation that reimposes criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of specified drugs, partly reversing a ballot measure that voters approved in 2020 to remove penalties. But the same bill also eases barriers to insurance coverage for treatment, services for more than 1 million low-income recipients under the Oregon Health Plan, and medication-assisted treatment in jails.
House Bill 4002 passed 51-7, and along with a companion budget of $211.2 million, both measures go to the Senate for up-or-down votes.
The Senate, meanwhile, passed two bills that jump-start housing production — but at only about half the $500 million requested by Gov. Tina Kotek — and continue the full $100 million she asked in state aid for local shelter beds and programs to avert homelessness. Senate bills 1530 and 1537, which passed on identical votes of 21-7, go to the House for up-or-down votes.
The 35-day session must close no later than March 10 but could close earlier. The last major bill on the docket is a budget reconciliation measure that will emerge in the session’s final days. Oregon’s government operates on a two-year budget cycle.
Although different senators voted no on the two housing bills — one of which contains a much-debated provision allowing a one-time expansion of urban growth boundaries of cities without the extensive justification required by state land use laws — the Senate passed both of them by big bipartisan majorities.
Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Portland, who leads the Senate Committee on Housing and Development, said in a statement afterward: “This package is an incredible, bipartisan accomplishment that will make real progress on one of the toughest challenges facing our state. I’m really proud of the work we did to put forward smart solutions that will deliver urgent relief to Oregonians who need it.”
Sen. Dick Anderson of Lincoln City, the committee’s top Republican, said, “The governor has laid out an aggressive goal on housing production. This suite of bills will help us begin chipping away at these production targets in my district and in communities across the state.”
Two-hour debate
More than a third of the 60 representatives spoke during a two-hour debate on the 140-page bill produced by the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Addiction and Community Safety Response.
Rep. Jason Kropf, a Democrat from Bend, a former prosecutor and the House co-chairman, acknowledged that much of the attention focused on whether possession of small amounts would be reclassified as a Class C misdemeanor or a Class A misdemeanor. Democrats favored the first, which carries a maximum 30 days in jail and a $1,250 fine. Republicans, backed by law enforcement groups and local governments, favored the second, which carries a maximum of one year in jail and a $6,250 fine.
In the end, lawmakers settled on an unclassified misdemeanor — with maximum of six months in jail, but no fine — that can be removed from people’s records if they complete “deflection” programs that have the same aim as diversion programs for drunken-driving suspects. Such programs will be available in 23 of Oregon’s 36 counties — but it will be up to the courts and district attorneys to make such referrals.
“The ability to make this an unclassified misdemeanor has given us the flexibility to be clear about our intent — treatment and recovery,” Kropf said. “We have heard from law enforcement repeatedly that they want the tools to be able to intervene and confiscate drugs in their community — but they do not want to take people to jail. We are providing the framework to make that a reality.”
The bill also reinstates a legal standard that possession of a large amount of drugs constitutes an intent to transfer them and draws stricter penalties. The Court of Appeals set that standard in a 1988 case. But in a 2021 case originating in Tigard — in a decision upheld by the Supreme Court last fall — the appeals court said it was a “substantial step” but that police and prosecutors needed to do more to demonstrate intent.
Issue is personal
Some representatives offered stories about how addiction has had a personal effect.
For Rep. Dacia Grayber, D-Tigard, a firefighter with Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, it was the death of a man who had been revived five times previously — but died in the presence of his 2-year-old daughter.
“We failed that man, but most of all, we failed his daughter,” Grayber said. “I want to walk out of this building today, face my colleagues right now who are involved in this work, and know that we can do everything possible so that the generational impacts of what we found in that 2-year-old are not felt for generations to come.”
For Rep. James Hieb, R-Canby, it was the death of two brothers from fentanyl overdoses a decade ago. He said one reason he sought office was to do something.
“I believe this bill will help save lives,” he said. “It will help save so many families from the pain associated with the loss of their loved ones. I believe this bill is a step in the right direction.”
For Rep. Annessa Hartman, D-Gladstone, it was a father who disappeared from her life when she was 8 — due to alcohol abuse, Hartman said — a step-brother and a resident of an assisted-living center she met on a police ride-along in Oregon City.
Her step-brother spent 13 months in jail, where Hartman said he went drug-free but also got no treatment. He was released to his stepfather on Dec. 22, but died around Christmas Day, having taken a fentanyl-laced pill he thought was a common pain reliever.
On the ride-along, Hartman said, police were summoned to an assisted-living center after housekeepers turned up a small amount of methamphetamine in someone’s room. The resident denied it initially. An amputee in his late 60s, he responded after he said he had obtained it while doing laundry elsewhere: “Look at me. I don’t have much to live for, I’m in pain, and I’m stuck in here. So what if I want to escape?”
“When it comes to addiction, I am a firm believer that this is a disease. No one chooses to become an addict,” said Hartman, who ended up voting for the bill. “I know that passage of this bill can do great things. But I also know it does not get to the root cause of why someone falls into addiction in the first place.”
Rep. Ricki Ruiz, D-Gresham, said the recent death of a family friend from an overdose prompted him to vote yes.
Lack of prior spending
Rep. Travis Nelson, D-Portland, said that while the bill proposes many things he favors, he is concerned that Black and Brown communities will continue to be disproportionately affected by higher arrest rates and lack of treatment options.
“This disparity underscores a continuing trend,” he said. “Criminalization for drug addiction is not the answer.”
Rep. Farrah Chaichi, D-Beaverton, said: “Measure 110 was not going to fix decades of underinvestment in 18 months — and neither will this bill.”
Measure 110 channeled most of the state’s proceeds from marijuana sales — taxed at 17% under a 2014 ballot measure that legalized it for adult use — into substance use treatment programs. But the money from the Oregon Health Authority was slow to get to providers — and sales alone are insufficient to pay for substance use and mental health treatment.
“We are going to have to continue to have to invest in the efforts that we are making now,” Rep Tawna Sanchez, a Democrat from Portland and House co-chair of the Legislature’s joint budget panel, said in presenting the supplemental $211 million budget. “I just want to put a marker on that to say that more investment is going to be required.”
The other votes against HB 4002, in addition to Nelson and Chaichi: Democrats Mark Gamba of Milwaukie and Khanh Pham of Portland, and Republicans Jami Cate of Lebanon, Ed Diehl of Stayton, who spoke for the bill earlier, and Dwayne Yunker of Grants Pass.
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