‘It’s going to kill people!’ Oregon’s drug decriminalisation a ‘catastrophic failure’ as death rate surges

The state decriminalised the possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine and other illicit drugs with the aim of promoting addiction treatment.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that Oregon had the highest increase in synthetic opioid overdose fatalities, compared to other states reporting the data, when comparing 2019 and the 12-month period ending June 30, 2023, a 13-fold surge from 84 deaths to more than 1,100.

Rantz said he is fearful the policy will continue to claim lives as lawmakers double down.

“There’s very little funding for treatment”, he told Patrick Christys.

“Instead, all they’re doing is handing out clean needs. They’re handing out fentanyl pipes for people to continue engaging in this addiction that is ultimately going to kill them.

“What we’ve seen in Oregon and frankly, here in Washington state where we’ve done something somewhat similar, we’ve seen a rise in overdose deaths every single year since.

“We’ve seen a new record for fentanyl overdose deaths.”

Nationally, overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids roughly doubled over the aforementioned time span.

Oregon’s law supporters have argued that the surge was assisted by sources like the Covid-19 pandemic, a mental health workforce shortage and the fentanyl crisis.

Rantz argued on GB News that the law has not only exacerbated the death rate, but it has also contributed to other problems like homelessness.

“The homelessness crisis is being fuelled by drugs and obviously not getting any better”, he said.

“It’s getting worse than the crimes that are associated with the drug addiction from the homeless.

“What they are doing is breaking into cars, stealing things, shoplifting, selling those and then using the money for a dollar fentanyl pill.

“It’s an endless cycle that is causing a whole load of problems.”