Measure 110-outrageous & stupid

If ever the road to Hell was paved with good intentions, measure 110 is a classic example of that timeless dynamic. Measure 110, as written by Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, was passed by the Oregon Legislature in an effort to mitigate what many consider to be the failed "war on drugs" and what the consequences of that failed war represent. Treatment not jail was the rallying cry for this measure. 

It should be mentioned that Ellen Rosenblum has come under criticism for the hypocrisy of her own life. She is the wife of Richard Meeker, who is one of the owners of Willamette Week Newspaper, and for many years did business with the reprehensible website called Back Page Dot Com, which was closed down for rampant sexual trafficking.  The woman who had vowed to take on the predatory men who are the core of Oregon sex traffickers is married to man who accepted money and did business with Back Page Dot Com, which was famously closed down due to promoting sex trafficking. 

While there is a great deal of merit in that ideology, measure 110 has taken a grim U-turn backwards and is careening toward disaster. Our teen-age children and young children are directly in the line of fire and susceptible to being impacted for life if they are not protected against the growing casual acceptance of serious drug use and drug addiction. Not everyone is for this new law and former Governor John Kitzhaber is one of those opposed to it. 

Ellen Rosenblum, a lawyer by trade, is apparently trying to practice medicine without a license. The author of this seriously misguided law must have never had any personal experience with the list of drugs she proposed to decriminalize. Or perhaps she has and she just doesn’t think it’s that big a deal? But even the highly respected former Governor John Kitzhaber does not support this new law, explaining in a blog post that: “Incarcerating people who suffer from addiction should not be tolerated. But today, very few people are jailed simply for possession—and eliminating our current drug diversion program, before building the capacity to address Oregon’s addiction crisis, will have lethal consequences.”

Rosenblum is playing doctor—a dangerous kind of Russian roulette with our kids lives. This law states that any adult or juvenile may possess small amounts of the drugs on the approved list. And this is a large list of dangerous substances that are known to be extremely addictive. 

Another Oregon doctor who takes aim at this horrible law is Dr. Paul Coelho, who writes in a published statement entitled: “PHYSICIANS TAKE AN OATH TO DO NO HARM; MEASURE 110 CREATES HARM that he does not agree with the new measure. “I’m a physician with a hospital-based practice focused on treating patients with chronic pain and addiction. During my 25-year career, I’ve observed firsthand the adverse health and societal effects of illicit drug use in our community including: overdoses, HIV and Hepatitis C infections, heart valve infections, epidural abscesses, skin-grafts due to injection drug use, homelessness, domestic violence, suicide, psychiatric holds, work-loss, divorce, loss of child custody, and social isolation. Despite clear harms of continued use, most addicted individuals will refuse treatment when it’s offered. In fact, recent epidemiological data reveals treatment refusal rates for both opioid and methamphetamine addictions exceed 80%. Consequently, those experiencing addiction often require external incentives/disincentives such like threat of loss of family and friends; drug courts; and collaboration between law enforcement, courts, probation, DHS, and the treatment community to collaboratively nudge addicted individuals into long-term recovery."

Dr. Coelho goes onto explain the state of mind of most addicts, which I completely agree with when he writes: “Measure 110 framers portray individuals with active addictions as rational actors who will naturally seek out and accept treatment for their condition. I can assure you as a front-line provider it’s simply not true. Nor will levying a token $100.00 fine be financial disincentive of sufficient magnitude to coax ambivalent or pre-contemplative people into a life of abstinence or long-term recovery. Unfortunately, removing the threat of incarceration and abandoning collaboration between law enforcement, probation, and the drug court system will result in a revolving door of drug abuse, treatment refusal, crime, homelessness, and ongoing costly health-related expenditures for hospitalizations due to overdoses, infections, and drug-induced psychosis. We need look no further than recent problems surrounding the Portland sobering center or staggering financial losses at the Unity Center to appreciate the magnitude of the illicit drug crisis we face in Oregon. As a healthcare provider I urge you to join me and vote no on Ballot Measure 110. Oregon can do better.”

It is legal for your child to possess forty hits of (LSD) acid! In my younger days I used acid occasionally and have personal experience with the drug. It is a temporary form (hopefully) of a twelve hour experience into the terrifying landscape of chemical insanity, delusions, and nightmarish hallucinations. I can say this with confidence and also that it has destroyed more than a few lives in the process, altering the brain chemistry in a way that is irrevocable and permanent. 

Each acid trip is a gamble you take hoping that you can return to any semblance of normalcy. I survived but many did not. My wife, Theresa, has a sister who used LSD numerous times one summer in the late 1970s. My wife told me this sister has never, ever been the same since. This was years ago and she is now a woman who has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, who lives on social security disability insurance. This sister has been chemically changed, by all appearances, forever. To support any idea or belief that your child can possess or use forty hits of acid is criminal stupidity at its most worst. Forty hits of acid can destroy a young mind permanently. My wife and I have seen it happen.

Another drug on the list is of course, Heroin. Your child may possess one gram of heroin, under this new law. As a lifelong police officer, on the job for nearly twenty years, I have known many heroin addicts in my time, dealers, prostitutes who became addicted, many of them teenaged prostitutes, housewives who became addicted, and housewives who turned into prostitutes after they became addicted.

It always starts with just “a little taste” so the dealer can convince the naïve non-user what it feels like. They know what they’re doing each time they do this. And many of them derive a perverse and sick thrill from watching an innocent young life become addicted to the juice. It is the way all pimps trap young girls into prostitution, and it is the way all pimps trap young men into become dealers or prostates as well. The people who peddle in drugs are not always weak victims but rather socially aware predators. 

Right now, you only have to drive through the streets of downtown Portland to see heroin addicts shooting up or nodding off on every corner. This is the end result of their first “little taste.” If you are a parent, is this really what you want for your daughter, or your son? Do you really want them to get just “a little taste” of this highly addictive schedule one drug? Courtesy of Ellen Rosenblum, attorney turned doctor? Do you think your child will react differently than the millions of other young children and teens who do become addicted and completely destroy their lives in the process? Do you really want to get to know exactly how calculating most drug dealers are? 

Next on the list of drugs your children may possess is two grams of cocaine. Cocaine achieved popular culture approval in the 1970's and was tacitly approved of in popular culture, and used by millions of Americans. Cocaine was touted as a good way to get any party started, releasing inhibitions and making everything seem fun and funny.

Coke, as it is known, is a stimulant, a highly addictive substance with street names like Snow, Crack or Blow. It is listed as a “schedule two controlled substance” by the federal government, available by prescription only. Therefore to get it, you must have doctor’s prescription and only a doctor’s prescription.