By JIM GERAGHTY
If readers have not done so already, they should read Ryan Mills’ eye-opening reporting from Oregon, where even some liberals and progressives have concluded that the state’s decriminalization of hard drugs has turned into a social catastrophe.
Over the last few years, as drug-overdose deaths have skyrocketed in the state, as squalid homeless camps have proliferated in Portland and beyond, and as the treatment and recovery options Oregonians thought they were voting for failed to materialize, many residents have changed their views. Increasingly, they are saying that drug decriminalization hasn’t worked, and many believe that nibbling around the edges will not be enough to reverse the damage.
“I do think there are a lot of people like me, left of center, who are realizing it was a mistake,” said Lisa Schroeder, a downtown Portland restaurant owner who voted for Measure 110. “If I could turn back time and repeal Measure 110 tomorrow, I would do it.”