Measure 110 rollback passes House: Oregonians ‘ready for this misguided experiment to be over’

In unusually emotional proceedings, the Oregon House on Thursday voted to make minor drug possession a misdemeanor crime, bringing the state a step closer to ending its pioneering and fraught experiment with decriminalization.

House Bill 4002 passed in a bipartisan 51-7 vote. Four Democrats and three Republicans voted against it; two lawmakers were excused.

It is expected to get a floor vote Friday in the Senate, where it is expected to pass.

The House also on Thursday signed off on an estimated $211 million in spending on a wide-ranging array of projects and programs intended to expand access to substance abuse treatment, including in jails, and mental health services.

The vote was marked by candid and often deeply personal revelations from lawmakers who talked about their own losses and family experiences with addiction.

Several spoke of losing close family members and friends to fentanyl overdoses. Another spoke about the painful legacy of her father’s alcoholism.

Rep. James Hieb, R-Oregon City, said he lost two brothers to drug overdoses a decade ago.

He cast a vote in favor of HB 4002, saying he was “pleasantly surprised” by the bill.

“I do not believe it is perfect,” he said. “But it is much better than expected. I believe this bill will help addicts. I believe this bill will help so many families.”'

Rep. Ricki Ruiz, D-Gresham, spoke of the grief of attending the funerals of friends and community members who died from drug overdoses.

“It’s heartbreaking that as I grow older, I go to more and more funerals, not because of the natural process but because of overdoses,” said Ruiz, who voted for the bill.

He said lawmakers owe those struggling with addiction “the resources, the time and the ability to seek recovery.”

Rep. Dacia Grayber, D-Portland, warned her colleagues about her remarks in advance, saying “some of this will be difficult to hear.”

A Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue firefighter and paramedic, Grayber said she has “worked so many overdoses.”

“I can remember those faces,” she said.

She recalled walking into a home to find a man who had overdosed and was on the floor with his toddler “curled on his chest.” She said she remembered him from five previous medical calls.

This time, though, the man was beyond help, she said.

“There was nothing I could do to bring him back,” she said. “We did all the things. He was gone.”

Grayber voted for the bill, saying fentanyl poses an extraordinary public health risk.

“What we have on our streets today is more powerful, more insidious than we have ever seen before,” she said. “The lethality of what we are dealing with is different.”

Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend, who co-chaired the committee tasked with coming up with policy proposals during the short session to address criticism of Measure 110, said HB 4002 isn’t like other criminal justice bills intended to send a tough message about criminal conduct.

“With this bill, when it comes to possession of small amounts of drugs, we are sending a much different signal,” he said.

The bill creates a new class of misdemeanor that comes with the potential of up to 180 days in jail, but lawmakers say people found with street drugs should have multiple opportunities to enter treatment before they wind up in a jail cell.

“Our intention, our goal,” Kropf said, “is treatment and recovery.”

Under HB 4002, local governments and law enforcement agencies would decide whether to opt into an approach giving people the chance to pursue substance abuse treatment before they are booked into jail. Lawmakers said 23 counties so far have signed onto the approach.

The spending bill that passed the House earmarks more than $30 million for county-based diversion programs.

The bill leaves it to each county to decide the details of how the so-called deflection programs would work -- a provision that some lawmakers and critics worry will lead to disparities in how the law is applied.

Though Measure 110 passed 59% to 41% in 2020, the explosion of the fentanyl crisis and open drug use since the initiative passed – especially in downtown Portland – soured many Oregon voters on the decriminalization law and paved the way for Thursday’s vote.

The bill received strong and even enthusiastic Republican support, with one lawmaker calling it the “most pro-law enforcement bill the House has passed in years.”

Rep. Christine Goodwin, R-Canyonville, said the bill will give police and prosecutors the “necessary tools” to hold drug dealers accountable and direct drug users into treatment.

“Oregonians have been clear,” she said, “they are ready for this misguided experiment to be over.”

Four Portland-area Democrats -- Reps. Travis Nelson, Farrah Chaichi, Mark Gamba and Khanh Pham -- cast no votes, as they raised concerns about racial and ethnic disparities in enforcing drug laws and said they worried the bill burdens the beleaguered court system and moves the state further away from treating addiction as a public health problem.

“Criminalization for drug addiction is not the answer,” Nelson said.

The Democrats who voted no emerged from the House to a small gathering of Measure 110 advocates that included Sandy Chung, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, which lobbied against the bill. They applauded the lawmakers, handing them bouquets of white roses as a gesture of thanks for breaking with their party.

Republican Reps. Jami Cate, Ed Diehl and Dwayne Yunker also cast no votes.

-- Noelle Crombie is an enterprise reporter with a focus on criminal justice. Reach her at 503-276-7184; ncrombie@oregonian.

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