Drug recriminalization in Oregon: 5 Questions for attorney Jon Dennis
Dennis discusses Oregon's recent drug recriminalization.
For Oregon, 2020 was a big year for drug reform. That November, voters passed two major ballot measures: Measure 109, which created a state-regulated psilocybin program that’s now been up and running for over a year; and Measure 110, which lowered penalties for the possession and use of drugs including heroin, methamphetamine, fentanyl and psychedelics such as MDMA. Previously, those caught possessing or using such drugs received misdemeanors. Measure 110 decreased the punishment to a violation with a $100 fine, which could be waived if a person called into a drug treatment screening hotline. Reform advocates hoped this system could incentivize people with drug issues to receive free addiction-treatment services. The changes went into effect on February 1, 2021.
It’s now been three years. During that time Oregon did not see a drop in overdose deaths or public drug use and some politicians blame Measure 110. In February 2024, Oregon State Representative Jason Kropf (D) and Senate Majority Leader Kate Lieber (D) introduced House Bill 4002, which effectively undid Measure 110, recriminalizing the drugs that were decriminalized in 2020. Drug possession again became misdemeanor violations, punishable by jail. It passed in March, and went into effect when Oregon Governor Tina Kotek signed the bill on April 1.
To get a view into what is going on with drug policy in Oregon, The Microdose spoke with Jon Dennis, an Ontario, Oregon-based attorney who has been active in Oregon’s psychedelic reform efforts. In 2022, when Oregon’s Psilocybin Advisory Board was drafting and finalizing its rules, Dennis presented a proposal to the board about how to protect the rights of people using psilocybin for religious and spiritual purposes; the proposal did not pass. Soon after, Dennis became executive director of Vital Oregon, a psilocybin facilitator licensing program.
Oregon’s Governor recently signed into law House Bill 4002, which recriminalizes personal possession and use of psilocybin, and yet Oregon is home to the country’s first program to allow state-legal access to psilocybin. Does 4002 affect psilocybin services in Oregon?
Strictly speaking, HB 4002 doesn't impact the legality of psilocybin services under Measure 109. What it does do is criminalize any other access to psilocybin in the state. So now the choices are that you either access psilocybin within this highly regulated commercial marketplace, where the minimum cost of access is around $1,000, or you commit a crime. So, Measure 109 itself isn't affected by this, but now it’s the only noncriminal option.
We have about half a million Oregonians who live in poverty, and about 40 percent of those people live in deep poverty. At those high price points, many people who either can't afford to or otherwise would prefer not to access psilocybin through this highly regulated system may not be able to, or else commit a crime to do so.
Many of the legislative discussions about HB 4002 included concerns about drug overdose issues in the state. What is your understanding of how Measure 110 relates to overdoses?
There have been a number of studies that survey overdose deaths across the country, but in particular, a study from NYU which compared Oregon's rates of overdose fatalities to data from states that didn't have decriminalization initiatives. What they found is that there was not any statistically meaningful difference between deaths in Oregon and deaths elsewhere; in fact, there were even states that didn't have decrim laws that actually had higher jumps in deaths. To say that Measure 110 was solely responsible for overdose deaths is really missing the mark in a pretty substantial way, and yet that was really trumpeted in legislative discussions. Public drug use by houseless people was the most politically salient factor in those discussions, rather than a nuanced analysis of the data.
Many other states are considering bills that would lower penalties for the possession of psychedelics. Do you think HB 4002 will have repercussions for those efforts?
We don't have enough data yet to really know for sure. But what we do know is that the impact HB 4002 will have on psychedelic access was not really considered in any public-facing deliberations. Legislators didn't publicly or overtly contemplate how this would create a class system where some people can access psychedelics and others can't. For that reason, I don't think 4002 was intended as a rebuke of unregulated psychedelic access. The political pressures that led to 4002 - general overdose deaths and public, visible drug use by houseless people in downtowns across Oregon — were really what drove that.
While we don’t understand how much this will impact other decriminalization efforts, this does cast a little shade on the term “decrim.” I’ve heard from other people in the drug reform space that this is a dark chapter; they’re not really sure whether we should even keep using the word “decrim” because it's become potentially tainted. Would it be better to try to find new words that aren’t associated with the open air fentanyl markets that Measure 110 got blamed for?
How are Oregon psychedelics advocates reacting to this new recriminalization law?
One read on this situation is that psychedelics were just an innocent bystander that got caught up in the mix with HB 4002, so there's some sense that this is not a meaningful rollback. But there are questions about strategy going forward. For people within the psychedelics community, having only regulated access — what happens in industries is that industries hire lobbyists and they become self-protective. They want to ensure that they are and remain the only way to get access. From that perspective, it really is incumbent on the community to ensure that when we're considering reform, we consider the impacts on marginalized people, low income communities, and communities that face disproportionate enforcement of drug laws.
While many people in the psychedelics community don't feel slighted by this new bill, it also now means the community has to be a whole lot more careful. Now, instead of $100 ticket, a misdemeanor charge could be looming overhead, which means hiring lawyers, having to take off work for hearings, potentially having a criminal record, and, in some circumstances, it could mean going to jail. There’s now more fear and more caution.
What’s next for psychedelics in Oregon? Will there be new efforts to undo 4002?
Some people have called HB 4002 a legislative fix to ballot measure 110, but the implications for psychedelics seem like a pretty glaring oversight. I’ve been part of a few conversations, including with legislative staff, about a legislative fix to that legislative fix — to make sure there are conversations in the legislature around the social justice and equity implications of a regulated-only system, where all other use is criminal. There is an appetite to address this, and it’s my hope that we can correct this wrong.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
