Three years ago, Oregon voters approved a groundbreaking ballot initiative that eliminated criminal penalties for low-level drug possession. The result of that "reckless experiment," New York Times columnist Bret Stephens claims, has been a "catastrophe" featuring increases in "opioid overdose deaths," "shooting incidents," and public nuisances such as discarded needles, "human feces," and "oral sex."
Stephens' assessment, which draws heavily on a story by Times reporter Jan Hoffman that was published on Monday, combines legitimate concerns about drug addiction and public order with misleading implications based on out-of-context statistics. And because Stephens ignores the main argument for decriminalization—that it is unjust to treat drug use as a crime—he never grapples with the morality of the policy it replaced.
