SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Since Oregon residents voted in 2020 to decriminalize hard drugs and dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars to treatment, few people have requested the services and the state has been slow to channel the funds.
Oregon still has among the highest addiction rates in the country.
Fatal overdoses have increased almost 20% over the previous year, with over a thousand dead.
Steve Allen, behavioral health director of the Oregon Health Authority, acknowledges that Oregon's experiment has had a rocky start.
But he says a milestone has been reached, with more than $302 million being sent to facilities across the state to help people get off drugs.
