In 2020, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize small-scale drug possession, replacing jail time with either a fine or addiction recovery. But in 2024, Oregon re-criminalized possession while introducing a $20 million deflection program to ensure this wasn't returning to "business as usual." But it was.
Deflection is when police refer people to drug services instead of the criminal legal system — a critical investment when Oregon is experiencing one of the worst addiction crises nationwide with five overdose deaths daily. Oregon's treatment access ranks last in the country. But vague guidelines funneled funding to cops instead.
According to The Guardian, several counties spent it on police gadgets and vehicles, sheriff costs, and prosecutors. Other counties even bought TruNarc spectrometers, devices marketed around the copagandist myth that cops need protection from pervasive drug exposure. Oregon's second-largest jurisdiction budgeted "twice as much of its funds for police and district attorney salaries as it did on community programs."
This misuse of funds goes beyond Oregon. Hundreds of millions of dollars from the first COVID-19 stimulus bill went to police departments and prisons. Even the failed George Floyd Justice in Policing Act allocated $750 million to cops.
The system's paternalistic logic expects us to exchange our agency for "safety" and "solutions" from the state. And when reformism continues to fund policing, the most vulnerable suffer the consequences.