Oregon botched drug treatment plan tied to decriminalization

By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon officials and lawmakers say efforts to get millions of dollars in funding to treatment centers and related services as part of the state’s pioneering drug decriminalization have been botched even as drug addictions and overdoses increase. Oregonians passed Ballot Measure 110 in 2020 decriminalizing possession of personal amounts of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other drugs — the first in the nation to do so. The ballot measure redirected millions of dollars in tax revenues from the state’s legal marijuana industry to treatment, but applications for funding stacked up after state officials underestimated the work required to vet them and to get the money out the door.