What We Think About Homelessness and Drug Use Is ALL Wrong
August 7, 2023
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The Bitchuation Room with Francesca Fiorentini Episodes Around August 7, 2023
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9:30Now PlayingWhat We Think About Homelessness and Drug Use Is ALL Wrong
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as posted by the channelThis week the paper on record weighed in on the war on drugs on the side of the war.
A new story out by entitled ‘Scenes From a City That Only Hands Out Tickets for Using Fentanyl’ laments Oregons measure 110, which went into effect a year and a half ago, and blames it for the state’s increasing overdose deaths and visible homelessness.
Measure 110 effectively decriminialized drug prossession, which meant that possessing small amounts of certain drugs, including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, and oxycodone, went from a criminal offense to a civil violation. It also funded and expanded access to treatment and recovery services. Overall, this ballot measure which passed in 2020 democratically emphasized a public health approach over criminalization for certain drug possession offenses.
Now… here comes the backlash. As we said, the program is only in its infancy but critics, including those at the Times, are already deeming it a failure. “Within months of the measure taking effect in February 2021, open-air drug use, long in the shadows, burst into full view,” they write. This NIMBY-type complaint is also coupled with the distaste for the visible poverty of tent cities and unsheltered homelessness. Just this summer, Portland (non-democraticly) moved to criminalize homelessness and effectively ban outdoor camping, more intense enforcement is set to begin soon while the unhoused already endure sweeps on their belongings.
It seems that many are so quick to deem harm reduction or decriminalizing a failure when its only just begun. The issue of homelessness and drug addiction (which are not one in the same) is so complex but its hard to believe that criminalizing addiction to drugs is the right response.
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Thanks to Paige Omek, Alexandra Ornes, and Max Inhoff
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