2020 was norm-fracturing for Portland Ore. In a six month window we were hit with COVID-19, lockdowns, the professional abandonment of our urban center (downtown Portland vacancy rate reached 34.6% in the 3rd quarter of 2025), sustained political unrest, wildfires and civic dislocation wrought by statewide drug decriminalization.

The Rose City can’t blossom in a bed spiked with narcotics.

Oregon doesn’t need war games from D.C – we need to decide for ourselves what’s tolerable.

I’ve advocated for drug reform through the lens of addiction medicine for over two decades. Portland Oregon’s civic soul’s tenderly threaded relief valve is getting stripped. 25 years of “harm reduction” has debilitated buyers, enriched sellers and fostered a sense of brokenness in the social contract for everyone else.

Drug laws that aren’t centered on addiction science cost lives and harm communities.