more precise language describing the problem

Unhoused addiction — lives publicly ravaged by relentless drug consumption that supersedes all other survival needs — is not caused by housing policy. It’s caused by drug policy.

Changing the semantics of how we refer to chemically dependent individuals — a person is experiencing opioid use disorder, they’re not an addict— without affecting outcomes is lip service, not solutions. Vague references to “behavioral health” without explicitly referring to Oregon’s addiction population is word play. It’s pastel language masking the profound collateral damage of unregulated drug policy.

Building more affordable residential units won’t end addiction. Counting shelter beds without accounting for recovery rates is bogus treatment. If government makes it easy to score drugs, ingest drugs and be under their influence, it’s supporting the supply side. If government makes it easier to stay addicted than to achieve sobriety, more folks will remain addicted. If government can’t accurately identify problematic policies, it is part of the problem.

Dems Must Define Their Relationship with HArd Drugs

Perspective: as the war on drugs was revving up in the 1980s and 90s, it was Democrats, specifically Delaware Senator Joe Biden, who sponsored the crime bills. Ds and Rs were united about controlling drugs.

To thread this needle as carefully as possible: after 25 years of lobbying, Democrats have become united about NOT controlling drugs.

By prioritizing increased drug access despite the emergence of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, Democratic drug policy contributes to suffering and death. Assistance from the government supporting the domestic drug use market rewards the “well organized, well funded, tech-savvy transnational enterprises” that supply the product.

If progressives continue to advocate for “harm reduction”, despite stronger, deadlier, more accessible drugs, where does it end?

Since recent Oregon policy changes ease the pathway into drug proficiency, why not just include the drugs too? If the government gave drug users free drugs (along with the taxpayer-provided paraphernalia they already supply) that would eliminate the trafficked juvenile drug dealers, much street crime, prostitution to support addiction etc. It would streamline the supply chain if government traded empty bottles for fentanyl. If government started actually manufacturing the fentanyl they could ensure quality and potency, cut out Chinese and Mexican cartels as middlemen, clear up a lot of international displacement and reduce ferocious violence.

Just say no?

The entire structure supporting “harm reduction” rests on the certainty that drugs are here to stay. This assumption has encouraged a drug market that is cheaper, stronger and more accessible to consumers and more competitive for suppliers. Are we living in fentanyl’s world or is fentanyl, a drug that wasn’t produced for anything other than hospital administration in 2000, living in ours?

Sinking people so deeply into addiction that they have nothing left to lose is a consequence of 21st century drug laws. We deserve drug policy that is humane, hopeful and evidence-based, not politicized, dehumanized and deadly.

Cannabis Comment

Flower power: water, seed, soil, sun. The federal scheduling of marijuana as a drug more dangerous than fentanyl until 2026 was ridiculous. The drugging up of cannabis by Big Chronic™ is dangerous, unnecessary and more rooted in profiteering than plant medicine. Let’s get back to the simple roots with weed.

Expand Drug Courts

DPA has never been an advocate for Drug Courts because they consider them to be a concession from the drug war. This valuable resource should be appreciated, funded and scaled up.

Dems Must Look At their Relationship With The Soros Family

For the record: I have been drawing attention to this relationship since Demainstay’s beginning. There’s a Soros pile-on presently (10/25), but political donors should be scrutinized. Just because the Soros name has been vilified on the right doesn’t mean that the billions they’ve spent under the umbrella of the Open Society Foundations hasn’t impacted people’s lives significantly. When is society open enough? If our safety net’s webbing is too loose, those who need it most will slip through.

25 years of harm reduction has become ruinous. Decriminalizing all drugs in Oregon in 2020 was bad public policy. And the Soros men only grew their social capital under the last Democratic administration. Son, Alex made his society debut at the Met Gala in 2024 and married the shadow party to the Democratic Party with his summer wedding to Huma Abedin. Father, George, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in January 2025.

Their philanthropy has spent hundreds of millions of dollars moving the dial on drug policy. Like it or not they have the receipts. Democratic lawmakers, especially in Oregon, need to reject DPA money and follow the wishes of their constituents that actually live here in the state.

We want common sense and common decency; a civic environment where professionals, families, playful young adults, the elderly and tourists can enjoy thriving public places and irreverent (but safe) urban offerings. And in the Portland area, we want a city that’s weird not wilting.

Drug Reform will Benefit From new Philanthropic voices

This field has been dominated by men. To the female mega-philanthropists: you are mature women, bosses, long-term advocates in your families and now in the public good. Invest in drug reform! The only voices speaking to the Democratic party are funneled through DPA.

To all other donors, even those who don’t usually focus on Drug Policy, how about a new emphasis on Addiction Policy?

You won’t just have a lane, there’s an entire freeway available to promote compassionate, 21st century evidence-based approaches to growing drug misuse and America’s opioid consumption problem grounded in addiction medicine.

Let’s move past the well-funded drug activist dead-end framing that it’s mass incarceration or increasing access and imagine interventions with more life-affirming outcomes for the people involved in risky drug behavior and the greater community.

Every week in 2022, the equivalent of a high school classroom’s worth of students died of drug overdoses in the United States

Nearly one-third of U.S. adults know someone who’s died of a drug overdose. Ending government drug policies that increase deadly drug access will save lives. Fighting fentanyl and other synthetic opioids should be unwavering and nonpartisan. Our national family, shared futures and fraternal commitment to healthy society depend on it.