Under the new law, possession of small amounts of drugs such as heroin or methamphetamine will be as a misdemeanor and punishable by up to six months in jail.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek signed a bill Monday restoring criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of hard drugs, reversing a first-in-the-nation law that advocates had hoped would help quell a deepening addiction and overdose crisis.
Under the new law, the possession of small amounts of drugs such as heroin or methamphetamine will be classified as a misdemeanor and punishable by up to six months in jail.
Drug treatment will be offered as an alternative to criminal penalties.
Drug decriminalization is a great way to bring people back from the fringes of society. But it only really works if you invest in their rehabilitation. previously we were attacking them for trying to escape their poor life circumstances through whatever means available to them. Stopping that is great, but is only half the equation. It’s like we have a victim of a random shooting, and all we’ve done is stop external bleeding. The hard part, the rehabilitative part, means putting in the effort to stop internal bleeding, pull out the bullet, and prescribe antibiotics. I was just reading on another Lemmy comment section about how much retired Military people have come to rely on the basic income provided to them through the armed forces. They were talking about how much it helped them, and how it should be given to everyone. I’m in agreement.
When Sweden solved homelessness, they did it by giving people what they needed to survive. An apartment, healthcare, help.
If you want to help people, you can’t have one without the other