Oregon’s drug decriminalisation has had a troubled start
The state was the first in America to try it—and its experience holds lessons for others
“We’re known for microbreweries and marijuana—and now fentanyl and tent cities,” says Tony Vezina, who runs 4D Recovery, an addiction-recovery organisation in Oregon. Driving around Portland’s Old Town, he points out people smoking fentanyl from pieces of tinfoil. Things were different a dozen years ago, when he was addicted to drugs: then, “you couldn’t just be using out in the open.”
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “The Oregon experiment”
United States April 15th 2023
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