Law decriminalizing drugs seen as step in right direction

Oregon’s new law decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of all drugs for personal use went into effect earlier this month and has been hailed by advocates of drug policy reform as a “revolutionary” step in the right direction.

Rather than face a criminal violation with jail time, possession of illegal drugs is now a civil violation that comes with a fine and court-ordered therapy. Using a public health approach that offers treatment, rather than the decadeslong war on drugs approach resulting in incarceration, is one Oregon now shares with countries such as Portugal, the Netherlands, Switzerland and others. Criminal punishment has been shown to have little to no effect on reducing crime, including the use and possession of illegal drugs.

To discuss Oregon’s new law and its potential impact on treatment for drug addiction, and reversing the racial disparities caused by criminalizing drug use and possession, Jeannette Zanipatin, Dessa Bergen-cico and Deborah Small offer their perspectives. Zanipatin is the California state director for the Drug Policy Alliance (the largest financial contributor to the Oregon ballot measure); Bergen-cico is a professor of public health and addiction studies at Syracuse University, and is the author of more than 45 scholarly publications, including her book, “War and Drugs: The Role of Military Incursion in the Development of Substance Abuse”; and Small is a lawyer, public policy analyst and the founder of Break the Chains: Communities of Color and the War on Drugs, which is focused on building support in communities of color for alternative drug policies based on science, compassion, public health and human rights. (These email interviews have been edited for length and clarity. For a longer version of this discussion, visit sandiegouniontribune.com/ sdut-lisa-deaderick-staff.html.) Q:

Oregon’s new law decriminalizing all drugs went into effect on Feb. 1. Can you talk a bit about how addiction, specifically drug addiction, affects the brain and the body? And why criminalizing drug use hasn’t seemed to create the desired effect of reducing the use of drugs?

Bergen-cico: When a person is physically dependent on or addicted to a drug, that drug changes the neurophysiology and functioning of the person’s brain and body, which adapt to function with the presence of that drug in the system. In addiction, the body develops tissue dependency and without the drug in the person’s system, they can go into lifethreatening withdrawal. The circuits of the brain also change, and the survival instincts drive the person to continue using the substance to prevent painful withdrawal.

Q:

What are the benefits of taking this public health approach to drugs, of giving people help rather than punishment?

Zanipatin: The Oregon measure seeks to center whole person care as a cornerstone of the public health approach, which is grounded in science and evidence. This new law provides access to services that address the full range of people’s needs, whether that be treatment, housing, employment, or other resources. That’s what is so unique about this measure, is that it considers and includes a full range of services, not just what many narrowly think of as treatment.

Q:

What’s your response to opponents of this law, who are concerned that this approach is “reckless” and that it encourages acceptance of the use of harder, more dangerous drugs?

Small: Many of the same concerns were raised about the potential impact of teaching sex education in schools in response to the HIV epidemic; recognizing the equal rights of people who identify as part of the LGBTQI community; and, more recently, legalizing cannabis for non-medicinal use. For the most part, the concerns have proved to be unwarranted. Those who opposed reforms as being “reckless” must justify why they are more reckless than a system that is currently wrecking people’s lives in service of an unachievable goal — a “drug-free” America.

Q:

The racial disparities in the criminal justice response to illegal drug use and possession policing have been studied and reported for decades, with Black and Latinx communities suffering the greatest consequences. The Sentencing Project, a national nonprofit that researches and advocates for criminal justice policy, reports that drug arrests for Black people rose at three times the rate for White people in the nation’s largest cities between 1980 to 2003 (by 225 percent for Black people, compared with 70 percent for White people), with no difference in rates of drug use for each group. What do you hope Oregon’s approach will do to these disparities?

Small: In Oregon and the rest of the country, the vast majority of drug arrests are for simple possession of an illicit substance … and the majority of drug arrests have involved small quantities. The Oregon Criminal Justice Commission estimates that Measure 110 will lead to a substantial reduction in the number of felony and misdemeanor convictions for possession of a controlled substance. The total number of convictions for drug possession would fall by nearly 91 percent, overall. The reduction would be substantial for all racial groups, ranging from 82.9 percent for Asian Oregonians, to approximately 94 percent for Native American and Black Oregonians. Oregon’s new approach will significantly reduce racial disparities in drug possession arrests.