By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation,
Oregon voters who approved Measure 10 decriminalizing drugs thought addicts who received a $100 ticket would call a hotline to have the fee waived—and receive treatment needed to beat their addiction.
But that didn’t happen.
Between implementation of the law in February 2021 and September 2023, law enforcement officers issued 6,271 tickets for drug possession, but only 499 people (8 percent) called the hotline and only one in 10 received treatment, or about 50 people, according to KPTV.
Dwight Holton, CEO of Lines for Life, which ran the hotline, blamed it on the uniform citations, which didn’t contain the hotline number. Holt said most people simply threw away the citations. Roughly 9% of Oregon’s population has a substance abuse disorder.
