The decriminalization of low-level drug possession in Oregon was not associated with a statistically significant increase in drug-related deaths during the first year after that policy took effect, according to a study reported today in JAMA Psychiatry. The researchers reached a similar conclusion regarding fatal overdoses in Washington, where simple possession was decriminalized as a result of a February 2021 decision by the Washington Supreme Court. That decision prompted legislation enacted three months later that recriminalized simple possession but downgraded it from a felony, its classification under prior law, to a misdemeanor.
These results are obviously relevant to the ongoing debate over the impact of Measure 110, the 2020 ballot initiative that eliminated Oregon's criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of illegal drugs. Opponents of Measure 110, who have proposed initiatives aimed at reversing that reform, cite the continuing rise in opioid-related deaths as evidence that decriminalization encouraged drug use, with lethal consequences. But if that increase was consistent with preexisting trends, as the JAMA Psychiatry study found, this charge against Measure 110 does not hold water.
