A person lies on the street in Portland, Ore., in January. The state's experiment with drug decriminalization has been a public safety and health failure. , rolling back a 2020 ballot initiative she previously supported after it contributed to a surge in overdose deaths, rising violent crime, open-air drug markets, junkies wandering through the streets of Portland with needles in their arms and the acrid smell of burning fentanyl in the air.
Oregon’s leaders deserve credit for reversing course — even if it required a taxpayer backlash and tragic stories of children dying from ingesting fentanyl. The new law, effective Sept. 1, will make possession of hard narcotics a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail.As Oregon recalibrates, deep-pocketed groups that remain determined to legalize drugs are trying to revise history.