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.
Possession of heroin and methamphetamine should absolutely be legal in my opinion, but the legalization will only work with a universal healthcare system also in place. It’s not even about people who get addicted after taking them recreationally. Drug addiction, especially opioid addiction, is often about treating chronic pain, not getting pleasure out of it. People either got addicted to them from their doctors getting them hooked on them in the first place and they can no longer afford to get them by prescription or they resorted to them out of desperation because they couldn’t afford to see a doctor about the chronic pain in the first place.
And then there are the people who resort to these substances because they have no other way to escape, even temporarily, from the horrible conditions that come from being poor in America.
Sure, there are wealthy drug addicts too, but they aren’t going to be the ones being put in jail over this.
The wealthy ones still get good quality cocaine without having to worry that they’re getting an accidental speedball. That’s even hard as a middle class casual user.
“Good quality” is actually another reason to legalize all drugs. To stop them from being tainted.
You don’t have to convince me. I was a very casual (once a year or so) user but absolutely will not touch the shit going around right now. I’ve seen several accidental speedballs and I would almost swear there’s a variety of coke going around here that’s just cheap meth cut with lidocaine judging by the way people are acting on it.
Just 4 years ago it was pretty easy to find quality illicit drugs at reasonable prices. Now it’s all some variety of cheap opioid or cheap meth.
I’m fine because I don’t need it to function or escape. I have alcohol for that. I actually feel really terrible for the people who are using these unregulated things to self medicate because it’s a fucking grab bag out there.