Why Re-Criminalizing Drugs Is a Mistake

Oregon is making a mistake. The state legislature has responded to pressure to repeal Measure 110; the initiative that decriminalized the possession of drugs after being approved by voters in a 2020 referendum. The measure now faces a vote in the state senate before it heads to the governor's desk.

It’s true that popular sentiment has turned against the measure since it was passed, with many now believing that Measure 110 enabled drug use and, as a result, increased overdose rates. I believe this is not true. Back in September, I wrote an article along with Brandon Marshall and Alexandria Macmadu about how drug decriminalization is not responsible for the woes that the state is facing. We addressed the specific arguments critics used and debunked them.

In this post, I want to focus briefly on how arresting and jailing people actually increases the risk of overdose. Let’s start with a brief overview of how drug use works. Say you are using fentanyl; you have a dealer you trust and you’ve figured out a dose that works for you. We will call this your “tolerance.” This is the amount of drugs your body is used to taking. Now, let’s say you get arrested and you spend anywhere from a few weeks to a few months in prison. You’ve been forcibly detoxed because you did not have access to drugs or treatment while incarcerated.

When you are released, you start using again—only this time, a few things have happened. The drug supply has changed while you are in prison, so the drugs you were taking may be even more potent or mixed with other substances now. Your dealer may have been arrested themselves, so now you also have to find a new dealer you trust and you have no idea what they are actually selling. Finally, your body has undergone an adjustment and can no longer tolerate the dose you were once taking; what used to be safe can now be deadly. This is why overdose deaths are so high among people who have been released from prison. They are encountering a new supply and dealing with lower tolerance all at the same time—it makes for a deadly combination.

The research backs this up. For instance, one study found that those released from prison recently face an overdose risk that is ten times higher than the general population. Other studies have found this number to be as high as 40 times. Arresting dealers and seizing drugs has an impact on local overdose rates as well. One study published last June found that overdose death rates go up in an area in the weeks after a drug seizure. A review of studies published in January that looked at the association between law enforcement seizures and overdose death rates found a majority of studies indicated at least one statistically significant association between the two factors.

There are no magic wand solutions to this problem. It may seem easier to get rid of public drug use by incarcerating people, but this does not meaningfully address issues of addiction and has the potential to make overdose rates even worse. Our money is better spent addressing holes in housing, healthcare and investing in harm-reduction supports. These problems will not go away overnight; they will take time to show their impact—but we cannot give up on pursuing alternative methods that do not harm people and return to the easy but ineffective and expensive tradition of incarceration.

The rollback seems likely to happen and Oregon is poised to take a step backwards after leading America in the 2020. If the bill lands on the Governor's desk, I hope Governor Kotek will veto it.