I'm not posting this in the Decriminalize Nature thread as it's not just about nature.

Breaking News: Oregon Becomes the First State to Decriminalize All Drugs
https://doubleblindmag.c...decriminalize-all-drugs/

Very good. Going to need to build more methadone clinics.

In 2010 I was charged and convicted with felony possession, for having a personal amount of heroin. This is wrong.

Looks like Oregon also legalized psilocybin if it is given by "approved providers".

I have mixed feelings about that, seems like a framework for industry and $$$ to be involved instead of a principled stand for liberty of personal choice. The "approved provider" already is mother nature and fancy monkeys writing fancy laws can go take a chill pill.

We had both a decrim measure and a so-called psilocybin "legalization" measure on the ballot, both of which passed. I get the numbers mixed up, but one set personal amount limits for possession and set the penalty as a violation for most drugs, which means that the worst one would recieve is a $100 fine for personal use amounts. It's wording is problematic as it takes cannabis money from education and puts it into unspecified and currently non-existent treatment beds.

The other measure, which I emphatically voted "no" on, is the bill that sets up a system for licensed providers to provide mushrooms in "therapy sessions", something I have written and complained enough about.

My OR city has been experiencing a drug crisis like I've never seen, mostly caused by meth, and I am not really sure how or if either of these bills will do anything to make it better for the people suffering or to improve living conditions here.

Same up here in Oly with the meth epidemic, Null. It is very bad. There are several permanent meth camp towns. Little shelters built from pallets and the whole nine yards. There is a one block parking lot downtown which has been given by Oly for tent city. Seems like they had legalized hard drugs in PNW years ago from the look of the neighborhood.

Hoorah Oregon!

This is the first step to ending the failed and incredibly destructive "war on drugs".

I'm curious to see how the funds being diverted from education will be used, I hope the "treatment" they are funneling them toward will have a strong foundation in accurate education.

Honestly, effectively, they did. Busting street-level narcotics has been at an all-time low priority for local LEO for awhile now it seems. Since Covid it is non-existent, literally, in PDX. A walk through certain parts of town that weren't that bad last February and one is guaranteed to see either someone shooting up or hitting a meth pipe or an open sex act or violence, or all of it. It is like what I've heard the "red-light" district of Vancouver is like, and the same thinking for allowing it here prevails, without any of the fore-thought or reasonable consideration used there.

While I support decriminalization as part of my core value system, I worry that without funding distrubution in place and monies earmarked for working programs, that a whole lot of it will go down the drain in planning sessions while more and more people fall through the now gaping wide holes in the social safety net. It is not like placing people in the revolving door jail/probation/fine/jail cycle helps anyone, but a free-for-all isn't going to do much but create a huge, huge mess either. OD's have skyrocketed this year, another news story you don't hear about thanks to Trump and Covid ( and it's likely because of Trump and Covid, buuut...) I just know how the OR legislature works and how they love playing with poorly fleshed out bills that deal with large sums of cash for long, long periods of time without actually doing anything spelled out in them.

We will see how this measure pans out, and to be open, I voted "yes" on this it. The org that I work for, which is part of the fore-mentioned county's mental-health social safety net, supported it as well.

Fantastic news. Let's hope the rest of the country follow suit.

I wonder how this might affect the ability to conduct scientific research

Apparently it doesn't help much (but I don't understand the details). This news article talks about the topic briefly (among others).

What's missing is a concerted effort to educate the public about "Harm Avoidance," that's right, not "harm reduction" - that's for opioids, benzos, and coca, and the like.

After 50+ years of drug war propaganda, the population is in a state of intentional ignorance, distortion and delusion.

The situation without education and dissemination of best practices, will be like leaving an assortment of bladed electric power tools on the floor in a pre-school day care.

This thing about "approved providers" is just a way for society to avoid taking responsibility for the brutalizations, and retardation of progress that the Drug War represents, though admittedly, with the state of ignorance in the US, it's probably the best that can be done, for now.

Society and Culture need to grapple with this in an effective way, and the time for fear and ignorance is over.

I am glad to see this happening, finally...although I am unsure where I the the future will take us in relation to the monopolization of these plants and substances. I hope everyone elsewhere in the world moving forward takes Canada as a warning. So many people think the situation here with cannabis has improved. It has not, depending who you talk to. The government now owns commercial cannabis in Canada. The Public can only have 4 plants per household. With landlords and small apartments etc growing at home legally for anyone who needs the plant is just not possible. You either break laws, or fund the gov who booted out everyone who made the community what it now is.

As a medical user who cant funtion well without it night and day, I just can't find the strains or quality of medicine I could 3 years ago, before the gov approved big box growers took over the entire market by force. Now you pay a huge tax on top of it. This pseudo socialism in Canada is a facade, people are now seeing that just because someone lets you get high doesnt mean they have your best intentions.

Are things better now? That depends on who you talk to.

Take a walk down my old neighbourhood in east van and most likely you will conclude Vancouver has done a whole lot wrong.

Best to grow what you can now and hold it dear, and never vote for a company like compass pathways to own your medicine.

California may be the next...

'The war on drugs failed': California lawmaker will push to decriminalize psychedelics

I can't find the article to link to, but today our local DA announced the effective beginning of the enforcement end of this measure and said that his office will decline any forthcoming possession charges in Portland. At the same time, our Governor has stated that the funding for traetment will be delayed and will not begin to be allocated for over a year from now.

Salutation Jamie,



Earl Blumenauer has been "My Hero from USA" since Harper days, e.g. while i was still starting to become politically aware beyond what i thought i knew previously. Including Québec's Pharmacy Act legacy going back to dominion law, printed in 1890...



Well it's a bit of relief to discover i wasn't alone to notice!

Actually the law ain't even as permissive in Québec and also manitoba i'm told.

Are you forced to stand shaming TV ads where you live?



M'yep! In retrospective i can now claim observing the transition looking through my microscope - literally. Actually just the annoucement of Trudeau before our 2015 electoral poles sufficed to reflect in ways hardly encountered at all before...



Can't see how. Not to mention those i manage to talk to about Prohibition v2.0 seem practically clueless and that ain't even their fault, mass media being part of the problem rather than solution.



I wish i could express everything there is to say in one burst, as if more misery described in details could help heal yours.



If you do please keep in mind you'll also need to outhink the thinktank, especially if depending on electricity from a utility grid featured with smart meters.

The number & amplitude of vilification vectors exploded in comparison to the pre-2015 period i was able to witness. Anyone supporting the "legal" mari-caca of cap'tain Itnoc is now a guinea-pig, considering there's just ZERO long-term public health studies on chronic mass-poisoning from savvy designer (non-detection) Pest Control Product soups optimized for their residual "trace" synergies. Which by the way caused me to discover the old history of a level-3 item from UN's Chemical Weapons Convention: Zyklon gas...



Good day, have fun!!

Been thinking about taking a trip to Oregon soon. Has anyone been able to get any good psychedelic drugs in Oregon recently? All I keep seeing is photos and video of dead or strung out Heroin and Fentanyl enthusiasts on city streets. Did Oregon get better or worse after this change? Would love to hear some first hand accounts.

Does anyone live in or visit Oregon who can comment on this? Thanks.

I’ll comment but you prolly won’t like it. I live in Oregon. R.I.P. city.

It’s a very complex topic that I don’t really have the time or energy right now but…

The idea around the measure was to reduce the impact of incarceration for minor charges and the major disruption to lives of poor people that enforcement for minor drug charges create.

It was voted in right before the pandemic and as some of you know, one city here was center stage for some debatably performative protests that created a wide gulf between opposing viewpoints and which has been latched onto by both sides in a political war that extends beyond the borders of this state. This measure, and the failure of the state in effectively implementing it along with the highly visible results (but not the human suffering) has become one of the hotbed issues.

The failure of the state has in part created a crisis on our streets which just last week criminalized homelessness and created 5 concentration camps for people dealing with drug addiction, mental illness and homelessness in another ridiculously shortsighted and very Oregon “fix” that will continue to drain finds that could be used to address a problem affecting all of our lives here currently, as in many other cities across this country tonight.


In the meantime, people continue to die in unprecedented numbers on the streets from the fentanyl scourge, with no access to the beds that were supposed to be created through the measure from weed money, which have not emerged because the money only recently has begun to be released from the state.

It’s a fucking mess. As for whether you can get good drugs here from it, I can’t tell you, but prolly not. If you’re referring to the psilocybin bill, that’s just for jerks that can pay $1000 to sit in some other certified jerk’s office and take sanctioned mushrooms. But you’ll have to wait a year or more for that exciting privilege. Best to stay away for now if you’re looking for a a place to engage in drug tourism.

Guy I know just paid $1000 for picking mushrooms at the coast.

Only one of those measures was to increase your access to drugs, and only how they want to let you. The other one was meant for all those awful heroin and fentanyl people you mentioned. Got a dispensary in your town? That’s your best bet for legal shit ATM

Excuse my rant, sorry not sorry, but this post kinda (really) triggered me. Like the home I love is doing not you want to know if you can get drugs here?

Bummer, sounds like a hot mess.

Well, for what it's worth, during my childhood there was a heroïn epidemic in the netherlands and particularly in amsterdam and some other major cities. Amsterdam became a magnet for addicts across all of western europe. A bit like some cities in oregon or california today i suppose. I have vivid memories to those days. For a little kid, cities like amsterdam or rotterdam where scary places back then. Especially after dark.

But it got better. It took maybe 15 years or so, but the cities díd heal. Many people eventually did manage to get clean and lead a normal life again. Ofcourse there are still some homeless people in amsterdam and other cities. The city of amsterdam has a population about as big as that of san fransisco. Any city of that size will have a few homeless folks. But some streets realy used to be scattered with needles and homeless people, looking like zombies. And those days are totally gone now.

It will take some time, but this epidemic will pass as well. And yes, too many will die. But more people will get back on their feet again.