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This is just going to result in increased blight and crime in Portland as it attracts larger and larger numbers of drug addicted homeless and jobless people. No

This is just going to result in increased blight and crime in Portland as it attracts larger and larger numbers of drug addicted homeless and jobless people. Not that Portland or Oregon actually charges criminals anyways, but the deterrence of criminality does matter. I feel bad for the Portland residents who didn’t vote for this.

onecommentman 6y ago
One of the wonders of the Federation of States in the US is a ready source of beta testers for new governance ideas. A majority of voters in Oregon in this election have voted to decriminalize all drugs. The rest of the States get to see if that was a good idea and decide if they should consider it. There are enough legal backstops at the Federal level to snap this back to criminalization, well, instantly. Citizens in those other States who see the Oregon model as a better deal for them have the opportunity to move there. And probably will. Drugs “are a hell of a drug” and moving will sound a lot easier to many heavy users than doing the hard work of breaking an addiction. That migration legacy won’t change so quickly. I also feel for those who are being put in the middle of this social experiment against their individual will, especially the kids. But kids survived the communes of the 60s and, ironically, probably some of these now-adults are the sort who will be motivated by this. If the 60s-80s were the California period, and 90s-10s the PNW period (starting with grunge), this might be a big, long nail that seals the PNW period in its coffin. PS: If I were a cynical sort, I would wonder if CA and WA were working behind the scenes to make this happen. What an elegant way to offload a social burden and deflect attention onto someone else. “You think parts of SF are bad, well check out today’s Portland. SF doesn’t look so bad now, eh?”
amanaplanacanal 6y ago
They could probably move across the river if they really hated it. I doubt many will, though. Portland is a pretty nice city.
gdubs 6y ago
Well, we’ll see. But it’s not like our current way of dealing with drugs is working in this country, no matter how you look at it. But this argument feels like a lot of pearl-clutching without basis in science. Point to the research, don’t just scare people that drug addicts are going to descend in droves upon neighborhoods and ruin them with crime. Separate point: This new law has generated a lot of memes from people who didn’t bother to read past the headline. But to me, the forgotten element here is that in the United States, drug laws are wielded disproportionately against people of color, who end up in jail at much higher rates for similar offenses as white people. [1] Want to talk about crime? Our current way of doing things creates criminals. It puts people in jail, who can’t afford to get out, who then struggle to repair their lives and get hired in decent jobs. It’s a downward cycle of despair and — I would argue — one of the clearest examples of racial disparity we have. 1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5614457/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5614457/

onecommentman 6y ago

One of the wonders of the Federation of States in the US is a ready source of beta testers for new governance ideas. A majority of voters in Oregon in this election have voted to decriminalize all drugs. The rest of the States get to see if that was a good idea and decide if they should consider it. There are enough legal backstops at the Federal level to snap this back to criminalization, well, instantly. Citizens in those other States who see the Oregon model as a better deal for them have the opportunity to move there. And probably will. Drugs “are a hell of a drug” and moving will sound a lot easier to many heavy users than doing the hard work of breaking an addiction. That migration legacy won’t change so quickly. I also feel for those who are being put in the middle of this social experiment against their individual will, especially the kids. But kids survived the communes of the 60s and, ironically, probably some of these now-adults are the sort who will be motivated by this. If the 60s-80s were the California period, and 90s-10s the PNW period (starting with grunge), this might be a big, long nail that seals the PNW period in its coffin. PS: If I were a cynical sort, I would wonder if CA and WA were working behind the scenes to make this happen. What an elegant way to offload a social burden and deflect attention onto someone else. “You think parts of SF are bad, well check out today’s Portland. SF doesn’t look so bad now, eh?”

amanaplanacanal 6y ago

They could probably move across the river if they really hated it. I doubt many will, though. Portland is a pretty nice city.

gdubs 6y ago

Well, we’ll see. But it’s not like our current way of dealing with drugs is working in this country, no matter how you look at it. But this argument feels like a lot of pearl-clutching without basis in science. Point to the research, don’t just scare people that drug addicts are going to descend in droves upon neighborhoods and ruin them with crime. Separate point: This new law has generated a lot of memes from people who didn’t bother to read past the headline. But to me, the forgotten element here is that in the United States, drug laws are wielded disproportionately against people of color, who end up in jail at much higher rates for similar offenses as white people. [1] Want to talk about crime? Our current way of doing things creates criminals. It puts people in jail, who can’t afford to get out, who then struggle to repair their lives and get hired in decent jobs. It’s a downward cycle of despair and — I would argue — one of the clearest examples of racial disparity we have. 1: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5614457/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5614457/