Rowan says fix to Measure 110 needs answers
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, April 17th, 2024 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
UMATILLA COUNTY – Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan is taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the Oregon Legislature’s fix to the ballot measure that originally decriminalized possession of personal amounts of narcotics. The so-called fix moves possession of some drugs up to being misdemeanors and participating counties have to establish deflection programs that will make substance abuse treatment a requirement to avoid the criminal charge.
Rowan said a number of people from the county will be going to a seminar in Salem next month to discuss deflection programs. He has some questions.
“We’re just not sure how to, first of all, build it out,” he said. “Then, secondly, to implement it; and then, how is it going to be funded?”
Rowan said Drug Court was a very effective way of getting people to fight their addictions and it was well funded by the state at the beginning. Then, it’s effectiveness eroded when state funding was reduced.
He thinks the error came with the decision to decriminalize drugs by voters who didn’t understand that there was no true treatment program included in the measure. He believes as a result even more people have become addicted to drugs like fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine.
“Overcoming that is going to be a heavy lift,” he said. “I wish they would have just taken it back to what it was originally – felonies.”
