I support decriminalization of drugs but this is not how to do it. Oregon failed hard on this topic.
Portugal achieved a 75% reduction in drug deaths with decriminalization. So citizens in the great state of Oregon voted for decriminalization and diverting people from jail to treatment, and what happened?
Foot dragging happened. Money earmarked for new treatment services didn’t get used, nobody mentioned to police hey we’re doing this new thing, and people with addictions didn’t get directed to treatment.
So throw up your hands and forget it, let’s go back to the war on drugs because that was such a resounding success.
It’s concerning. When people vote for administrators and vote for policy, then those administrators are supposed to implement those policies instead of do nothing and then claim it doesn’t work.
nobody mentioned to police hey we’re doing this new thing
The police were well aware. The issuer over 16,000 tickets. Only 200 called the number
Which town in Oregon do you live where the police were not informed? I know my police were informed. So what were your police doing different ?
Well I have been cautioned not to share any personal information on the interwebs including where I live, so I won’t comment on that.
I will say that there is least one town I have spent time in, near some mountains with trees where the police were informed but didn’t receive any additional training, nor did they seem to take the policy change seriously. Yes they wrote tickets and they also simply found something else to arrest people for. It seems not many people, of those who were in a position to effect real change, took the policy seriously. Unlike in Portugal where a more serious approach appears to have been more successful.
The ticket isn’t a get of jail free pass.you can still be arrested for other crimes. The law didn’t change that.
And I call BS they didn’t receive any additional training. It was in the POST training required for officers. You’re claiming a department ignored the training standard and falsified records? Yeah I’ll need the city name to buy that shit.
Nope I didn’t make that claim.
But Oregon’s Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, which trains law enforcement, confirmed in February that it has offered police no instruction on how Measure 110 works other than to update information for new recruits on when drug possession is a violation, misdemeanor or felony. https://www.propublica.org/article/oregon-leaders-hampered-drug-decriminalization-effort
Published in February 2024
Not sure who is making that claim. I sat in on the training and one of my friends produced training for 110. I haven’t met an officer who wasn’t trained on 110.
I can’t find an official verified statement that no training was provided. It’s seem that’s propaganda against the police police since this article claims there was no training then list the training they were given
Departments simply received a simple question-and-answer guide from the state and officers were unclear about how best to handle situations involving drug possession and leading to additional frustration
That is training. When a law changes, that typically what you receive for training and it’s what I saw when I sat in on the training.
So while people are trying to blame the police, they were trained.
When you leave off the beginning of the quote it seems misleading:
“BM 110 implementation also lacked any training and education for law enforcement officers,” the report says. “Departments simply received a simple question-and-answer guide from the state and officers were unclear about how best to handle situations involving drug possession and leading to additional frustration.” https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/06/23/researchers-release-second-round-on-findings-on-measure-110-police-dont-like-it/
So everyone received training but somehow between you and me we found two sources that say there wasn’t training.
I think you’re just re-defining the word “training” to something other than what an average person would consider “training” to mean, and claiming you’re right. Just like the Reagan administration redefining ketchup as a vegetable in order to cut costs on children’s nutrition funding. Oh sneaky republicans.
Be real: if officers were unclear on how to handle situations- then they clearly didn’t receive as much instruction as they needed. Not receiving enough instruction = untrained. A Q&A pamphlet does not constitute training. It doesn’t matter if that’s what typically happens or if this is officially referred to as training, this is not what is normally meant by the word, or what a reasonable person would expect of “training”- especially when the health and safety of officers and the general public are at stake.
And I don’t think anyone is blaming police. It seems they were as frustrated as anyone with the lack of clarity, resolve and commitment from state and local government to address drug addiction’s terrible burden on communities, families, and individuals. Like they did in Portugal.
Anyway, you can have the last word, I’m done here.
Be real: if officers were unclear on how to handle situations- then they clearly didn’t receive as much instruction as they needed. Not receiving enough instruction = untrained.
We have a biased article saying officers were confused. I haven’t heard that from officers. Officers were clear on the measure 110. Article after article talks about measure 110 with officers stating their opinion of it and none said they were confused.
It seems they were as frustrated as anyone with the lack of clarity, resolve and commitment from state and local government to address drug addiction’s terrible burden on communities, families, and individuals
Can’t find a single article with the police saying they co can find articles where the police were mad they couldn’t arrest.
Not some random police were confused. Real quotes with real names attached to it. That’s a cite.