Greenway Recovery Project

This Sunday marks a turning point in the saga of our state’s failed social experiment in “decriminalizing” drugs.

Effective on September first, possession and use of hard drugs becomes punishable under the new, revised measure as more than a simple violation. How that rolls out across the state will vary as the legislature, rather than creating a broad, uniform structure, instead opted to allow individual jurisdictions to decide for themselves how to adjust to the correction of the mistake that was made with measure 110.

It appears that Jackson County as a whole has selected to take a firm stand with the revision and will choose to hold jail beds for frequent fliers and may execute many more arrests for poor decisions and socially unacceptable behavior. Yes. There will be natural consequences for poor behavior in southern Oregon again. I do not expect dramatic changes to be apparent immediately. It sounds like Medford’s Livability team will take the lead in the rollout of the re-criminalization of illicit drug use in our area.

There will be “diversion” options for offenders, but it isn’t completely clear what those will look like. One would assume that those options will be fairly widely applied as there simply isn’t enough jail space for even some violent criminals in our area. But an unclassified misdemeanor arrest is going to be attached.

Detractors and anti-law enforcement groups will undoubtedly use the increased arrest numbers to decry “unfair practices” and “targeting of the homeless”, when in fact, officers will start citing/arresting for acts that simply went ignored under weak and ineffective measure 110. The effort was too great for zero returns for society.

The next hurdle will be to get a larger jail built with in-patient addiction services so that when drug users are jailed, they have tools at their disposal to curb use and fight addiction while in a clean environment.

Time to celebrate our wins and help our community start to return to a more safe and livable area.

City of Medford launches parks survey The City of Medford wants to hear from you.