Oregon lawmakers tell Gov. Tina Kotek to call state of emergency over Measure 110

Oregon state senators are pushing Gov. Tina Kotek (D-OR) to declare a state of emergency over a state measure that passed three years ago decriminalizing small amounts of illicit drugs.

State Senate Republicans are also asking Kotek to convene a special session to address the state’s drug crisis. State Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp confirmed the lawmakers have yet to hear back from to governor.

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“Measure 110 has failed Oregonians and the overwhelming majority want change,” GOP state Sen. David Brock Smith said in a statement. “The decriminalization of drug possession, the lack of incarceration and forced treatment has caused a dramatic increase in drug use and addiction, increased homelessness, open drug use in our communities and increases in overall property and other crimes. Measure 110 has ultimately compromised the safety of our residents by reducing the deterrent effect of law enforcement, taking away their ability to arrest.”

(AP Photo/Claire Rush, File)

Oregon voters passed Measure 110 in 2020, reducing penalties from a felony or misdemeanor to a $100 maximum fine and eliminating all criminal charges for possessing small amounts of drugs. The ballot measure passed with 58% of the vote and allocated a share of marijuana revenue for drug addiction recovery programs across the state.

“On average, 3 Oregonians die each day from an unintended drug overdose. Senate Republicans are committed to fixing this now, not in 3 months,” the letter signed last week by 11 Republican state senators and one independent reads.

The letter states that “since the implementation of Measure 110, all drug overdoses rose 61%1 and fentanyl overdoses rose nearly 600%,” citing testimony from Public Health Director at the Oregon Health Authority Rachael Banks.

Banks gave testimony at the House Committee on Behavioral Health and Health Care in January, saying “fentanyl overdose deaths increased nearly 600% between 2019 and 2021 and has now surpassed methamphetamine as the most frequent drug involved in overdose deaths.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl deaths have increased every year for the past decade. Fentanyl-related deaths have increased in nearly every state from 2019 to 2021; in 2019, there were 36,359 overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, and 70,601 overdose deaths were reported in 2021, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

A New York University Grossman School of Medicine study published in September looked into 13 states that enacted similar drug decriminalization policies to Oregon in 2021 and found no evidence connecting fatal drug overdose rates to decriminalization.

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Still, a majority of Oregonians want to repeal the measure completely. Fifty-six percent of Oregon registered voters would prefer to repeal the law, according to a survey this summer from Emerson College Polling. Last week, the Rainier City Council voted to call for the repeal of the provisions in Measure 110.

The Washington Examiner reached out to Kotek’s office for comment.