PORTLAND, Ore. — As a deadly drug crisis grips the streets of Portland with no sign of letting go, state leaders talked of what to do about it Monday in a small conference room off Northeast Sandy Boulevard.
The meeting was led by former candidate for governor Christine Drazan. State representatives along with leaders in Portland’s recovery field and even the head of a southeast Portland neighborhood association all raised concerns around open-air drug use and of course ballot Measure 110, the decriminalization of possession of certain amounts of hard drugs.
“This is not an easy issue. There are no simple or easy fixes to this,” said Drazan during her opening remarks.
“The legislature is taking this topic very seriously we know that the role out of ballot Measure 110 has not gone as smoothly as we had liked for a lot of reasons,” added Rob Nosse democratic state representative.
“We have made it easier to stay where you’re at than it is to get help,” said Alan Evans, the founder of Bybee Lakes Hope Center, Oregon’s largest homeless shelter and recovery re-entry program.
The hour-and-a-half meeting was just the latest in a series of discussions around the addiction crisis happening in Oregon. KGW asked Drazan what the goal of this was and if it would be any different from the rest. She said it was in part to keep pressuring the state legislature to make changes to Oregon’s drug policies during next year’s legislative session. “I think if you don’t create points for the public to engage and continue to advance these concerns then you are going to have a political outcome that’s not always responsive to the public,” she said.
The meeting is all part of Drazan’s nonprofit called “A New Direction,” focused on advocating for solutions outside of an election cycle. About 30 minutes into the meeting were the first talks of any such solutions including repealing Measure 110 and connecting police officers with available drug treatment options to refer people to.
“The concern that law enforcement has is we don’t want to move back to the world where we only can take people to jail, we have so many services that are being paid for, but those service places need to want to partner with law enforcement not because law enforcement is the solution but because we can all work together to make these contacts work better,” said Sgt. Aaron Schmautz, the Portland Police Association president.
There’s a new bi-partisan legislative committee focused on finding solutions to Oregon’s addiction crisis that was just formed in Salem and Governor Tina Kotek is leading a task force in Portland focused on similar issues. So, it's safe to say there are a lot of discussions happening around this issue.
On Monday KGW heard from Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office in an email:
“Mayor Wheeler has been very vocal about his concerns regarding the rollout of bm110 including what he’s been leading in terms of ways to address this crisis in Portland…It’s a state issue that state leaders need to work together to address.”