Decriminalization in America: Oregon's Reversal and What It Means

“Oregon's Measure 110 decriminalized all personal drug possession in 2020. The legislature repealed it in 2024. The lesson is not that decriminalization failed, it is that decriminalization without social investment cannot hold politically.”

Oregon's Measure 110 (November 2020) replaced criminal penalties for personal possession of all drugs with health assessments and referrals. The model was explicitly inspired by Portugal's 2001 decriminalization. By 2024, the Oregon Legislature had repealed Measure 110. The health assessment provisions had not been adequately implemented, the social service infrastructure required to make referrals meaningful did not exist in the communities where repeal of criminal penalties was most consequential.

Hari's account of Portugal's success was accurate for Portugal in the period he studied (2001-2015). What his account underweighted, as longer-term data has confirmed, is that Portugal's success depended on the social investment component, which austerity measures after the 2008 financial crisis eroded.

Oregon's reversal is instructive: decriminalization is necessary but not sufficient. Without corresponding investment in housing, employment, treatment capacity, and community services, decriminalization alone produces political vulnerability rather than public health improvement.

The lesson is not that Hari was wrong. It is that his framework is more demanding than 'stop arresting people.' Stop arresting people and provide meaningful alternatives to the conditions that drive drug use, that is the full policy, and it is considerably harder to implement than the arrest-and-incarcerate system it replaces.

Sources

• Wikipedia Oregon Measure 110
• EMCDDA Portugal Drug Report (2023)
• Hari Chasing the Scream (2015)
• CDC Drug Overdose Deaths (2023)